itinere | open: one day soon the dawn will come

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open: one day soon the dawn will come

[ alaina opts for a video post for this, mostly because she does a lot better in person than in writing. she's apparently like cassandra that way. whatever the case, she has something to say. settled in at a table outside, she sets the camera up, after a while of fiddling to get it just right, so that she can be seen at the perfect shot, hands folded on the table in front of her. she looks like a noble, someone born into the role of a leader, or who has been pushed there by fate and circumstance.

it might be a little of both. ]

So, how many of us are still here? I think we need a headcount. I hope everyone is still safe, but we need to work on a lot of things now. What happened recently was a tragedy. We need to be prepared so that something like this doesn't happen again. To go with our headcount, I'd like a list of who is capable of what. If you want to give it to me in person, I'll be outside my apartment all day. [ here, have a few directions. ]

I'll start us off. My name is Alaina Trevelyan. I'm the leader of the Inquisition in Thedas and a member of the noble house Trevelyan from the Free Marches. [ this probably means nothing to anyone but whatever. ] Most of my combat experience is with two-handed weapons -- greatswords, battleaxes, and warhammers -- and I have enough here that I can teach anyone who wants lessons. I'm used to fighting mages, templars, red templars, bandits, bears, quillbacks, anything that crosses my path. I also have extensive use of survival skills. In Thedas, we don't have any of this... electricity. [ be proud, natasha. ] I'm used to pitching camps, forging weapons, and hunting for food. Everything in the world has a use and I can help with that, too.

[ paaaaause. ] I also have a habit of taking in people, so if you need a place to stay or someone to protect you, now or anytime in the future, my home is open.

I've never seen a place repair itself like this one, but the fact that it was torn down so quickly means that it could happen again. We need to be ready. That means working together to ensure that everyone survives.

[ and with that, she'll let it go. inquisitor out! ]

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Guns. Exactly. There's a shooting range just on the other side of the rec center down a ways. People can train there too. [ He's pretty sure that shooting range is there because of him. He'd wanted a place to keep his skills sharp, the next day there was a new building close to the rec center. A shooting range.

Itinere is so strange. He's still reeling from the most recent events.

Derek nods. ] Yeah, I'm always willing to teach. It's better for everyone to be prepared if something like the last few months happens again.

[ Honestly, he likes teaching. He'd taught self defense, judo and infiltration tactics at the FBI Quantico building back home. He misses it. ]

A friend of mine is teaching me about guns. We don't have them in Thedas.

[ no she's not kidding. she'll probably be trying to see about actually learning sometime. but that whole noise and shooting things thing is... no thanks. ]

I agree. It's smarter to have as many people well-fitted and prepared as possible. [ pause. ] I haven't noticed people wearing armor here.

[ It is surprising that one wouldn't have guns. But then again, his world doesn't have mages or templars or anything magical, as far as he knows. So it all evens out in the wash, so to speak. ]

There was a time my people didn't have guns either. It's a relatively modern invention relatively speaking... a few hundred years or so.

[ Derek shakes his head. ] Before recently, armor was never something that seemed to be necessary. I'm not naive enough to think the last few months won't happen again, but I kind of hope it doesn't. I have my kevlar vest from home. That's it.

[ everything's weird to someone. just wait until she really talks about how this electricity thing is probably just a mage in the walls. ]

Still hasn't made its way to Thedas and I have to say, I'm kinda glad. We've got more than enough problems of our own without weapons like that.

[ no, seriously. give that to a fanatic or a red templar and the whole place is fucked. ]

Kevlar vest? [ another unfamiliar term. ] We have armor as protection. If you're going into a fight or somewhere dangerous in Thedas, it's stupid not to go prepared.

It's a kind of armor. [ Derek says of the kevlar. An armor that can stop most bullets.

He won't get into the pros and cons of guns. His own Glock has saved the lives of innocents and himself too many times to count for him to ever be okay without it close at hand. The way he sees it, everyone has their way of protecting themselves. ]

Yeah, any fight anywhere. You gotta use what you have, skills or otherwise. [ Although as a profiler Derek knows that sometimes going in without weapon or kevlar to try to talk down a perp instead of battle can have its own merits. Knowing when and when not to do that is a skill in and of itself. ]

So you think something could happen again like what happened the last few months.

[ she's sure they're great in good hands, but her mind immediately goes to the wrong people having it and it's red lyrium all over again. power corrupting in terrible ways. thank the maker she hasn't seen lyrium at all here, let alone the red kind.

armor she can understand and respect. that's all she needs to know. ]

Exactly. If you don't, you'll be setting yourself up for an early grave. [ at least... that's how it is in thedas. kill or be killed a lot of the time. ]

Yeah, I do. In my experience, if it's happened once, it could easily happen again unless precautions are taken and the people informed and protected. Kinda hard to prevent the sky from falling apart, but we can at least keep an eye on each other and help protect those who aren't as capable. I'm not usually in the commander role -- usually, I have someone else in that role who acts as my advisor -- but in a situation like this, tactics and strategy are very important. That's why I'm asking for everyone's specialties. The more we know about each other, the better we'll be able to coordinate if something like this happens again.

[ okay so she probably didn't need to explain everything to him like that, but she's used to being questioned in thedas. sure, people are learning that the inquisition is a force to be reckoned with, but they do still question her, a lot because they want to see her slip and fall. alaina has learned to be firm in her stances and to support them each time. so... there she goes again. ]

Never seen anything like that before. [ His world didn't have monsters, not the obvious kind. The monsters in his world were almost scarier than the last few weeks because they wear faces just like himself and Alaina. They look normal, can seem nice and ordinary even while they hide all the bodies in the basement.

In truth, Derek almost prefers these more obvious monsters. A firm line where you can tell between evil and good. It was the shock value that had gotten to him, not knowing how to handle them. He's a quick learner, thank goodness. ]

Yeah, I get that. [ Alaina's explanation tells Derek one thing. She knows what she's doing. That's good for them. And it's what makes him share a little bit more. ] Back home I'm law enforcement, basically. Hasn't been much need for that here yet. But I specialize in Profiling. Do you know what that is? [ He doesn't want to assume, so he'll just ask. ]

Neither have I. But after a life of demons and darkspawn, that seems pretty much like a normal day to me.

[ her world has both kinds. the darkspawn magister, the demons, and the red lyrium-crazed templars are all bad enough. but then you have people like alexius, who followed the magister just because he wanted to save his son and ended up ripping holes in time itself, creating a temporary future where nothing existed but red lyrium and demons. people like samson, following corypheus for glory and honor, all misplaced because the magister wanted godhood, not to save anyone else. people like anders, blowing up a chantry just to free mages and force a rebellion that turned into open war.

or even just celene. briala. gaspard. orlesians in their own bloody civil war, killing those who oppose them, tricking the rest, and playing their game until the blood flows freely down their hands and the stains will never leave the tile.

it's sickening. alaina will take demons and corypheus himself over the others any day. ]

Not just from the name. What is it?

Demons and darkspawn? Demons in a biblical sense, from Hell? What are darkspawn?

[ It hasn't been his intention to slam her with so many questions. However, while he's not one who's devoutly religious, he has just enough faith that he has to ask for clarification on these things he doesn't understand. ]

Profiling is the study of non-verbal cues and reactive traits both verbal and non-verbal to identify certain things about another person. So you study eye movement, certain ticks and stance that tell you more than they could ever say. Or you study how they say things and decipher what's true and what isn't.

[ He leans back in his seat and shrugs. ] People put off whole stories without even realizing they're doing it.

[ it's the middle question that trips alaina up most of all and she decides to address that one first by asking her own question. ] Biblical hell? [ that's a no, derek. alaina has no idea what that is.

deciding to address the rest in a minute, she heads for his explanation. ] I can see how that would be useful. My spymaster would love to have you on her side, but she's still back in Thedas. [ people like him would be worth triple their weight in gold sovereigns. if not more. ] That could be useful here, too. I'm not here for personal secrets unless someone is on his way to becoming a threat to this population. If you think you can keep an eye on those you pass and look for any signs that someone's going off the rails, that would be a great help.

[ between derek and jill, alaina is going to be set for "spies" and she already feels so much better. ]

As for darkspawn... it's probably better if I start at the beginning. [ ugh. she sighs. ] A long, long time ago, at least five hundred years, legend has it that a group of magisters from a nation called Tevinter found a way into the Fade, which had never been done before, with the goal of finding the seat of the Maker. According to legend and history, they succeeded, but because they did, they blackened everything. They destroyed it, tainted it. What they left in its wake was the darkspawn, tainted people and animals, all kinds of creatures. They live deep underground, down where the dwarves used to roam the Deep Roads. They aren't normally coordinated. They don't have the intelligence for that.

[ thank the maker. ]

We call what they have the taint and it is real. If you come into contact with it, usually it means a very slow and very painful death. And if that wasn't enough, if the darkspawn come across an Old God while in the Deep Roads, they give the Old God the taint. The Old God becomes an archdemon, the archdemon coordinates all the darkspawn in existence, they storm the surface, and we have what we call a Blight. The archdemon and the darkspawn try to overrun the surface. Anything they touch dies instantly. The very earth is poisoned with the taint. The Blight only ends when the archdemon is slain and the darkspawn driven underground again. Only a Grey Warden can kill an archdemon and there are very few of those left.

[ paaaaaause. ] The Fifth Blight ended ten years ago.

[ basically thedas is royally fucked up. she'll get to demons in a minute. ]

[ Well that's a relief that she doesn't even know what that means. He lets out a held breath and shakes his head. ] Nevermind. It's all good. [ Demons that have nothing to do with Hell. How does that even work? Derek stows that question away for now because in all truth he feels a little bad about hammering her with questions. ]

It's all about human nature and psychology. I work with a team of people who hunt serial offenders. There's always a catalyst for the decisions a person makes. If you can find the catalyst, you know the why, and if you know the why, you can get ahead of a person's next move. It's like putting together the puzzle of a person either from past actions or from watching reactions and mannerisms when interacting with them. [ Forgive him. It's been awhile since he's gotten to talk about profiling. There's really been no use for it here.

He clears his throat and moves on to the rest of the information she's given him. He likes that she's so forthcoming, like she has nothing to hide. ] Darkspawn sound pretty messed up. Are you a Grey Warden?

[ alaina's eyebrows rise slightly. she's curious, but if he's satisfied that they aren't the same thing, she can let it go. for now. she might come back to it later. ]

So if you understood elven nature, or even dwarven or Qunari, would that work on them as well? [ so elves and dwarves are probably easy to figure out. she has a feeling she'll need to explain qunari. ..or try to. she doesn't know them that well.

but in all seriousness, she's glad to have derek on her side, on the side of protection for the people of itinere. he will be a good one to have around.

as for alaina, she doesn't have anything to hide. she's inquisitor trevelyan and privacy has not been her life in a very long time, if ever. besides, if she wants to gain allies, she needs to do it right and playing the orlesian game is not her favorite thing. ]

No, I'm not. There aren't many of the Order left. [ not after what corypheus did. ] They are following the Inquisition now, so the ones who are still alive follow me as allies. I know the good they can do and we need them just as much as we need anyone else. They have proven their worth.

Give me a half hour with anyone and I can start to work out patterns in their behavior that will tell me a lot more about them than they would admit to. [ It's said with a small grin that might look a little bit cocky. But truthfully, he's just pleased to be talking about it with someone. It's fact.

He shrugs. ] I mean it isn't a hundred percent foolproof. People, no matter what they are, are unpredictable sometimes. But there's almost always a pattern in someone's actions if you look hard enough.

[ Alaina is a leader in her world. Derek can see that much. What kind of leader remains to be seen. But he's interested in finding out. So far she seems fairly forthcoming. That builds trust the more that's shared between two people. ] Inquisition. Is your world at war?

Got any pearls of wisdom about me? [ she might be offering something of a grin herself, a joke, but she is kind of curious. not that she hasn't been forthcoming about her life, but there are some things she hasn't told everyone. like why she's the inquisitor or the fact that thedas is basically a walking death trap or that someone very powerful wants her dead and she's getting used to other people dying.

thedas: where nothing good happens and everything wants to kill you. ]

Sounds like a very good thing to have around, especially now.

[ as for the question, she resists laughing. barely. yes. no. yes. ish. ] I don't think Thedas has had peace in the last ten years, not since long before the Fifth Blight. Maybe even before that. Do you want the short list or the long?

Aside from the obvious that you don't like being out of control and channel that into protecting and helping other people? [ Derek shrugs and shakes his head. ] Can't expect me to lay all my cards on the table, can you?

[ He's partially teasing, also he's waiting to see how she reacts to his original assessment. Derek doesn't like being out of control of himself either. It's easy for him to see the mirror image of that in her. That she channels that into something good, well, that's helpful. But it's also beneficial to her in those control issues. Here she is collecting information and knowledge about people in the city, giving them just enough information about herself to make her seem trustworthy. Knowledge is power. What she uses that power for remains to be seen.

In the vein of information and knowledge being power, that's what give him his answer for her. ] Let's go with the long list. I've got nowhere to be.

[ alaina pauses for a few seconds as she takes that in. what an interesting way to phrase things. she never would have seen it that way, but maybe it's slowly built up after so long a time of being the inquisitor. sure isn't the path she ever saw herself in growing up. ]

No. That would make the worst game of Wicked Grace ever. [ totally joking. she doesn't expect him to know what wicked grace is. ] But you might be right. I think it's more because I grew used to having someone else trying to control my life at every turn. My family tried to force me into service to the Chantry as a templar. Now I've got some thousand year old darkspawn Tevinter magister-- [ just think about that for a second, derek. ] --trying to kill me and destroy Thedas at every turn. Sure does give someone a complex.

[ on the plus side, alaina is not her spymaster. she is not and never will be leliana, nor will she care about using secrets in the same way that leliana would. alaina wants to keep people safe; leliana would keep a notebook for blackmail.

just as well, the words about corypheus are actually a good segue into the long and drawn out explanation. this is going to take some time. there are several pieces to the world state that have to be addressed before she can even begin to talk about current events. ]

So I've already told you about darkspawn and the Blights. Ten years ago, the Hero of Ferelden sacrificed herself to kill the Archdemon. That's how it always works. History remembers each Gray Warden who ends the Blights. But this time, the Blight wasn't the only problem she faced.

[ this whole thing is muddied. most of them only know what history says and who knows how accurate that is? ]

I don't know the full story. Ferelden is south of the Free Marches and across the Waking Sea. What I've heard is that most of the Ferelden army, including King Cailan and all but two of the Ferelden Gray Wardens, was lost at the Battle of Ostagar. Someone high up betrayed them and the darkspawn took them all. The result was that Ferelden nearly caved to Civil War and the Blight at the same time. But the Hero managed to unite Ferelden and the betrayer was justly punished. [ meaning executed. ] After that, she took her army and gave her life to defeat the Archdemon. Ferelden might have peace of a sort now, but last I heard, they're still dealing with the repercussions of all of that.

[ that's step one. next step is the mages, but she'll wait to let derek digest that first. ]

So that's the catalyst. [ Derek says this with a nod, having listened to what's going on in her home land of Thedas. She has people trying to take control from her at every turn and has for awhile. Of course she's trying to maintain what control she has. The people of Itinere are just lucky she seems to be using that power/control for good... so far.

He grins briefly and shrugs. ] I stand by my statement.

[ Everything Alaina tells him of her home is like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle only the pieces are all from different boxes and never seem to fit properly. It isn't her fault. Derek just comes from a world without all this magic stuff. So while he gets the general gist of what she's saying, the finer nuances of it still remain a mystery to him, like he has the pieces but they don't quite fit together.

He finally nods, settling all those puzzle pieces aside. ] So that's one war. [ He has asked if her world was at war and she had asked him about lists. He's assuming there's more than one. ]

[ alaina manages a look of interest -- she'll be interested to hear if comes up with anything else about her -- before sobering entirely. now comes the hard part. ]

To understand the rest, you have to understand the Fade. The concept of it, if not the thing itself. I don't know if anyone other than Solas really understands it. [ but solas is a special case. not that she knows how special. ]

Where I'm from, people -- that is, humans, dwarves, elves, and Qunari -- live in the physical world, which Thedas is a part of. There is also the Beyond, a realm of dreams, twisted by the demons, spirits, and dreamers who walk it. In dreams, we mentally enter the Fade and everything we dream shapes what it is and what can exist. Normally, it's physically impossible to walk in the Fade. [ key word there is "normally." she'll come back to that later. ]

The Chantry teaches that the Fade was the first realm formed by the Maker. Thedas came later and the two are separated by what is known as the Veil. The Chant of Light tells the story of the Tevinter Magisters somehow entering the Fade in physical form. They touched the Golden City, seat of the Maker, and now it is the Black City. The Chantry also says that when a person dies, their spirit passes through the Fade to rest at the side of the Maker. [ but that is, of course, up to whoever actually believes it. ]

Mages draw upon the power of the Fade to cast spells. From what I understand, this can leave them open to possession by demons. If this happens, the demon takes control of the mage's body and the mage then becomes known as an abomination. An abomination is... a nightmare for normal people. So they fear mages in any situation. In Tevinter, this is apparently different. [ if dorian were here, she'd be happy to let him explain, but since he isn't, she's happy to avoid that topic. ] A long time ago, mages formed their own society, outside of the Chantry and away from the fear shown by everyone else. Until recently, as soon as a child showed signs of being a mage, he or she was taken by the Chantry to a Circle of Magi, where the child would grow up to learn how to be a mage. They weren't allowed families or a lot of freedom, could never leave the Circle -- or very rarely -- and were always watched by a group of templars. The templars' job was to keep an eye on the mages. At the first sign of an abomination, the mage was to be dealt with.

[ aka killed in most cases. but she pauses here to let him take this in and react before she continues. ]

[ Derek can't help but imagine the Lord of the Rings films when she first starts in on describing her world. No, he'd never read those books. Even the films seemed like they dragged on forever. However right or wrong the parallel is, it's how he envisions what she's describing. It helps him to make sense of it to put those images into what she's describing. (Sorry for that Alaina).

And the Fade, not unlike Itinere, seems to be shaped by the people in it. Can you wish and think things into existence in the Fade like you can here? That's what it sounds like to him. The Fade, in essence, sounds like a world made of dreams and dreamers. ]

The fade sounds a lot like this place, molded by the people in it to an extent. [ He just wants to hear her counter to that theory, really. Derek is curious. ] Without the demon possession.

[ yeaaah she's... not entirely convinced this isn't some weird crazy dream. so derek is treated to an appreciative look and a nod. she won't be countering it, actually. ] Makes you wonder what else the Veil separates, doesn't it?

[ or y'know, just whether or not this place is the fade or whatever else is in her brain if this is her dream. maker's breath, what a weird dream. she might just blame solas for this. he's the fade expert. ]

Unrest has been brewing for a while, but in the last ten years, it boiled over. What's being called the Mage Rebellion started in Kirkwall, up in the Free Marches. From what I heard, the templar Knight-Commander became overbearing in her desire to keep the mages in check. The Kirkwall Circle became a prison and by the end, countless innocents had been killed because people were afraid of the rumor of blood magic being involved. An apostate, a mage living outside the Circles, blew up the Kirkwall chantry in the name of justice. Between that and her red lyrium-driven paranoia, the Knight-Commander tried to kill off all the mages in the Circle. You can imagine how well that went.

[ really, she needs varric here to tell that story. he was there. alaina has only heard pieces from him and hawke. ]

The end result was that the mages in the remaining Circles voted for freedom. They rebelled, the templars retaliated, and there was another war on our hands. Rebel mages and templars were killing anyone who got in their way and making refugees of just about everyone. They have since been quelled, but they are not the last.

[ one more pause to see how he's taking it before the final explanation of the current world state. aka THEDAS SUCKS YO. ]

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open: one day soon the dawn will come

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