itinere | one day soon the dawn will come }{ open

one day soon the dawn will come }{ open

As some of the town reels from nightmares, someone else steps through her door and into Itinere. Alaina had just come back to Skyhold from the Emerald Graves -- a really gorgeous place, if not exceedingly depressing at the same time -- and she had decided to pay Cullen a visit. It was late enough in the day that she thought he could use a break and she had wanted to set her armor down up in his loft rather than cart it all the way up to her quarters. That was her excuse anyway.

And her plan.

What really happened was that she took her helmet off, tucked it under her arm, pushed open the door to his tower, and promptly found herself stepping into a town she has never seen before. Her first thought is to blame Venatori mages. It's always the Venatori. But how would they have gotten into Skyhold?

Food for thought. Bitter, sour, tastes like Gurgut intestines food for thought.

Sighing to herself, she makes her way through town. Her long two-handed sword is still strapped to her back, her armor glistens in what light she can find, and her helmet remains tucked under her arm. For now. If any Venatori turn up, all bets are off. In fact, the only bets she'll be taking then are how fast she can take them down. So if she looks like she's tensed for an attack... she probably is.

Still, eventually in her wandering, she will start walking up to people for information. Where's Scout Harding when Alaina needs her?

"Excuse me. I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me."

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Natasha's nightmare earlier in the month had left her pretty unsettled, even still, so when she walks around, she's more tense, reserved. But when she's stopped by someone asking her something, she's somewhat taken away from thoughts that still run through her mind. Somewhat. "Sure." She only says one word in reply. The expression on her face doesn't give much away -- though there are hints of uncertainty in there -- and her tone of voice when she speaks is mostly neutral.

Alaina expects that sort by now. Many people have pledged their allegiance to the Inquisition but several have not and those who haven't are usually not openly hostile about it. Typically, they treat her with neutrality or mild scorn. So she can handle this.

"I need to know where I am, how I got here, and what happened to Cullen."

If the rumor mill hasn't gone around about the Inquisitor and the Inquisition's Commander, she will be very surprised.

"Itinere, and did you step through a door in your world recently? Because that's how you got here. If I knew a person named Cullen, I'd probably tell you where they are, but since I haven't ... I can't answer that one." That last bit she almost seems kind of apologetic about. "I'm guessing you just got here?" Or at least recently.

Alaina resists the urge to groan. "You know, I would call it a blessing from the Maker not to be recognized on sight, but somehow I'm starting to think this is the one time that might not be a good thing."

Her life. Her life.

"Cullen is the commander of the Inquisition's army. I did just walk through a door, but I hadn't realized someone managed to enchant our doors, too, or I would have figured out where they went before I used it."

Or called Morrigan. Speaking of... actually, that's not a bad idea. Alaina makes a mental note to talk to Morrigan when she gets back to Skyhold. The doors idea reeks of the elven Eluvians.

"Nothing can ever be easy," she sighs, resisting the urge now to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"I kind of thought that when I first got here." For different reasons, likely, but still. "I haven't met anyone part of an Inquisition army. Not unless you're part of it too, in which case I've met one." SO HELPFUL, Natasha. "Someone else here may have, though." It's not like she's immigration services here, so she doesn't meet everyone who happens to come through the doors.

"This place has left me with serious questions about how doors work." That's as much humour as she can muster now; it's very subtle, but there. "And things here, it isn't without its own weird circumstances sometimes, however."

"Well, I have been able to pass off as a soldier once or twice, but I try not to make a habit of it," Alaina jokes. Natasha might not be much of one for humor, but that's how Alaina makes it through her life. She always has to find something to laugh at or she might just turn into a cynic.

Like the rest of her family.

"In any case, you can officially say you've met the Inquisitor." She isn't going to complain about the lack of bowing and mutters of Your Worship following her. That's... actually kind of nice. "Alaina Trevelyan. Nice to meet you and thanks for the info."

Wait...

"What kind of weird circumstances?"

Usually, Natasha's hilarious -- mostly around people she knows well, but, even to those she isn't, she's slightly more open about making jokes than she's being now. She just nods slightly at Alaina's humour ... usually that would also be followed by at the very least, a half smile.

Oh, it's apparently her army and she's this Inquisitor? She must be really important where she's from -- and someone who'd know her way around several situations. Respect level goes up a couple notches. "Natasha Romanoff, likewise." With her brain still not out of after-effects-of-nightmare-mode, she almost introduces herself as Natalia Romanova, but catches herself at the last second and uses the Americanized form of her name, the one she's gone by ever since getting out of the hell she had nightmares about recently.

"The lights in the city went out for about a month a couple months back or so, nightmares seem to have gone around this month ... weird circumstances like those." Says the person who comes from a place where she's fought aliens and evil artificial intelligence. Yes.

(ooc: in case you're wondering, yes I actually went along with my urge to roll my dice to see which name she'd give, lmao.)

Alaina could make a crack about her glowing hand being a good source of light, but if Natasha doesn't know who she is, Alaina isn't about to enlighten her. Not yet. Though, the title Inquisitor should have done that already. Still, she would rather not have to explain that whole mess. She's still waiting for Corypheus to make his next move. Without her presence to stop him, Thedas is doomed. It's making her uneasy.

"What, did someone steal all of the candles?" Alaina asks. It could be a joke but for the completely serious way she asks it. Electricity isn't a thing in Thedas. She has no idea how it works or that lights can be anything other than sun and candles.

Or the glowing mark on her hand.

She's in for a shock later on.

"Can't say I'm sorry to have missed the nightmares. I get enough of those as it is." Her life is a nightmare with Corypheus at the head. Besides, Cullen has enough lyrium-withdrawal nightmares to last both of them into the next life.

"No, there were those around; candles are what people who wanted to be able to have some light in their apartments used. The electricity went out, so it was back to basics like candles." Or, you know, what probably most people here would call basics. "I got in a lot of reading-by-candlelight time after the sun started to set in the evenings." It had been nice getting to do that, actually; she's lived through worse situations than a lengthy power outage.

She knows that feeling. The one where there's enough nightmares as it is. "I'd say you dodged a bullet. It wasn't a great time, I think for anyone who was impacted by it, and I definitely could have done without the reminders it brought."

Alaina's eyes narrow slightly. Candles are all she knows. The rest of this is unknown and she doesn't exactly like that. Still, she isn't going to pass up poking for information.

"Electricity? I'm not familiar with the term." Or the idea, not that she knows now.

The analogy of dodging bullets is almost lost on her. She can get the general idea, but the idea of a bullet is completely foreign to her. The assumption is that it's a weapon of sorts. Maybe she'll find out another day.

"Then I think we all better hope the nightmares have returned to the Fade. With luck, better dreams will find their way in soon enough."

She would troll Natasha like she trolled Iron Bull, telling him that maybe he was still dreaming and it was all in his mind, but she can tell that now isn't the time. For once.

"We use its currents to power--" A beat. "--A lot of things. Lights, for one. Various appliances like microwaves, refrigerators ... electronics like computers, cell phones, and these." She finishes, pulling out her PDA that showed up on her person when she showed up here. "You'll have one on you too if you haven't already located it on your person." She adds in. "I could probably literally go on all day about what else electricity provides, so the short version is that it's a thing that people rely heavily on, so when it's cut off for whatever reason, it causes issues for people." And this explanation is a good reason to be thankful Natasha didn't go into a teaching career.

"If the Fade is a place where unwanted things go and have a hard time getting back out, I will second that wish." That's her best guess based on context of what it could be. At least they're both almost equally unfamiliar with terms the other keeps using. What a balance. And the're still managing to have an actual conversation.

The only thing that Alaina gets out of that explanation is that it has to do with lights. "So if the elec--" Pause. What was the word? "-tricity is out, then you can't do anything? How do you get anything done? We use candles and fire." Candles can be expensive, so they don't always use those, but there are torches very literally everywhere.

With the large and improved Antivan tailoring, Alaina hadn't actually noticed that anything was different. It takes her a minute to fish the device out, but she does, frowning at it as she listens. "What does this do? And how did it get in my pocket?" The latter question is the most important to her right now, but she'll take answers to both.

As for the Fade, she lets her hand drop as she tries to figure out how to explain it. "The Fade is... something everyone just knows about. Mages say it's a place where dreams manifest. But it's also a place of demons and nightmares." Literally both. There was a huge demon called a nightmare that stole fears until they stopped it. Unfortunately, one of their number was lost in doing so, but Alaina was determined that the sacrifice would not be in vain. "The Veil sits between our world and the Fade. If the Veil breaks, the Fade and the demons spill out to us."

It does help that Alaina and Natasha are equally confused about each other's respective worlds and experiences.

"Slowly. And without electronics." Which, from where she's from, is a lot to ask of a lot of people because god forbid someone go two minutes without the internet. "There's a lot to be said for the idea of candles and fire coming back in style." Never gonna happen, but ... you know, it IS a practical back up plan.

"It shows up on you when you arrive here." She answers the second question first. "It's one way you can communicate with people here -- and the first message it sends you, it tells you that you can go to the apartment buildings for your room. Kinda creepy at first, I know, but I don't make these rules." She'd gone to the apartments as per the advice of the text message when she first showed up, not because she immediately trusted it, but because of course she was going to scope out a potentially fishy place first thing.

While this Fade place sounds strange to her, it doesn't sound as strange as it could. You know, if she didn't have some of the friends she has (like a guy who turns big and green and smash-y when angry) or seen some of the shit she has (like fighting an alien invasion on the streets of New York). Even though she wasn't trained to deal with some of that stuff, she still has and thus she's willing to stretch her belief out a bit, to say the least. "That sounds ... unsettling. Demons and nightmares, I don't think I'd want to meet those at the same time." That word -- unsettling -- sounds like an understatement, considering what was said. "Is it anyone's job to watch and make sure no breaks happen or respond if it does?" Or, you know, if that's a thing that can even be done.

Electricity is still a weird concept to Alaina, but she's willing to let it go for now. Maybe she'll ask more if she gets stuck here for an extended time. Right now, she's more interested in talking about the device in her pocket and the Fade. Pushing something gets that opening message and it nearly startles her. Alaina frowns at the thing. Words appearing on a weird device without anyone writing them. What is this, some kind of mage thing?

"So did a mage make this?" And if so, which one and how does it even work?

As for the rest, she waits until she's read the message and has had enough of being toyed with by whatever means this is. The device goes back into her pocket, not because she wants it, but because she wants to keep an eye on it. Folding her arms over her chest, she regards the other woman with equal parts surprise and curiosity.

"You really aren't from Thedas, are you?" she asks. "Everyone in Thedas knows who I am and what I do." It's weird having someone who doesn't automatically think Herald when she walks in the room. "They call me the Herald of Andraste because I have power over the rifts in the Veil. I have been to the Fade in physical form and survived because of the Anchor. No one else has it. No one else can seal the break in the Veil that we call the Breach." The only good part right now is that the Breach is mostly sealed right now. The Inquisition and the Templars stopped the Breach from swallowing the world. All that's left is stopping Corypheus and finding a way to kill him for good.

"Usually I'd be confident in saying no, but considering it's a device given to people in connection with this place, I'm not going to pretend to actually know it's true origins. It's seemed to look and act like a normal PDA -- like I'm used to, and those aren't." So, she can take that answer for whatever she wants to. It's a maybe but maybe not.

"Nope. I'm from a place called Russia -- originally, anyway." Though she suspects the question was more rhetorical. "Can't say I've ever encountered a Thedas. Where is it?" Not that she expects their world's geography to be the same, but some details like landlocked or not, would still paint a picture. But that almost becomes the less important detail when she goes on to talk about her role. Yep, she's someone not to be messed with, mental node made.
"So does that mean you have magic?" Or ... something like it, she supposes. "I just have normal human abilities, but back in my home, I work with some people who have I guess what you'd call 'enhanced abilities' through various means." Steve with his super soldier ways from the serum, Wanda with her mental powers from being part of a human experiment, Vision who's not even human, Thor who's ... well - Thor, and Bruce the aforementioned big green guy thanks to gamma radiation.

"I'm guessing the term 'PDA' means something to you other than Public Display of Annoyance." Alaina says in what could pass as a dry joke. She isn't 100% sold on the idea of this not being a Venatori trick, but she isn't getting any bad feelings from this woman.

"Thedas is a continent. It's where most people seem to be from, though it isn't the entire world. I was born in the Free Marches to the north, but I've been living in Ferelden for a while now." Wherever Russia is, Alaina knows it has nothing to do with Thedas. For better or worse. Maybe Natasha is from somewhere else in their world. Odd to think about.

"I don't, not exactly. I just have this." Raising her left hand, Alaina calls upon the power of the Anchor. With the Veil being practically non-existent here, the most it does is sputter, glowing bright neon green and crackling with energy. It doesn't last long, though, and soon she's lowering her hand again. "That's the Anchor, my power to open and close rifts in the Veil. It was made from powerful magic, but I'm not a mage."

That actually gets a small smile out of her. "Usually yes, though that's a pretty apt name for them sometimes. People on phones in a movie theatre is very much an annoyance." Twenty-first century problems. Sigh.

"Sounds like a large place." At least, the way she talks about some of the other locations in it, makes it sound large. Or maybe that's just Natasha's bias showing there since she's more used to larger places to begin with. "Is your planet called earth, too?"

It may not be very powerful here, but it's still enough to be notable for sure, at least it is if you ask Natasha. With eyebrows slightly lifted as she witnesses that, she phrases it another way. "So it works more or less like a magical key, in other words." Also a familiar concept to her (magical-ish keys), considering a certain blue cube that was basically a doorway to space.

Most of those terms go straight over Alaina's head. Phone? Movie theater? The concepts are lost on her and so is the reference, but she nods, rather than ask too much more about everything.

"Not that I'm aware of," she admits. "Is that the name of yours?"

The concept of a key is about right. Alaina nods slowly, her mind immediately drawn to what the spirit in the Fade told her. "It's a needle that pulls me, the thread, and it acts like a key that opens and closes the rifts." So... yes, but in a roundabout way. The Anchor does a lot and she doesn't even know everything about it. "At least, that's what someone told me once. All I really know is that it closes rifts and that saves lives." She'll stop Corypheus for good with it. That's what she cares about.

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one day soon the dawn will come }{ open

/just spams you with tags, I guess :D

gimme XD

/piles on

/eats it up :3c

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