entranceway | ➶ four (action & video)

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➶ four (action & video)

[ The archdemon uttered a low, deep growl, collapsed and nearly dead, but not quite. Covered in gore and exhausted, the Warden had acted before thinking, dashing forward, all the while knowing an arrow would never be enough to take the life of a dragon, and instead grabbing a fallen warrior's blade from the ground as she went. The monster began to rise, snarling, its long, reptilian neck swaying as it watched her approach, but she never slowed, fearing her courage or energy might abandon her. It stretched out and roared, teeth bared, but she ducked beneath and traced the sword's edge along its exposed neck. Blood spilled overhead and behind her as the archdemon wailed, thrashing and then falling with an enormous crash nearby, finally defeated-- but, though the dragon had almost been ended, the soul would seek out another, and she drew ragged breaths in that final moment, shaking with adrenaline and fear.

Sacrifice. The word rang out in her mind in a dozen voices and she tried to picture the faces of all the people she'd fought with, all the people who hadn't made it to see this moment, before raising the borrowed weapon and driving it home in the skull of the leader of the darkspawn horde. A blinding light exploded before her eyes, the definitive sign that they'd succeeded, and she could just make out the sound in the distance of people calling out to her as that whiteness overtook her vision, blinding her, and then--

Blue. Robyn Cousland realizes her eyes are open again, staring up above at a clear, vast sky. She remains motionless for a long time, mind blissfully blank, but... dogged by a budding confusion. The Warden stretches her fingers and toes, wrinkles her nose at a very strange and unpleasant odor, shifts where she lies and winces as her joints crack. She's inexplicably lying in a garden, surrounded by flowers, likely crushing more than one of them. It's far from clear how she got here, or... where here even is, and eventually she's encouraged by curiosity to draw herself up to a seated position so that she can look around. The grounds with their lush hills and bubbling fountain aren't exactly familiar, but when her gaze falls on a looming mansion, her heart speeds up rapidly as if it had just woken up all at once. ]

Wonderland. [ She stares at it with her mouth now slightly agape. Wonderland, the strange place she'd been spirited to for... months, back before the Landsmeet, where she'd met... a handful of people from Thedas and even more from places more bizarre-sounding than Wonderland itself. She'd made friends and... likely enemies, she guesses, though their names and faces are still a little hazy. She'd met people who hadn't known her at all despite her memories saying otherwise. When she recalls those instances, particularly with Alistair and Morrigan, she recalls very sharply from where she'd just come and gets to her feet, albeit shakily. The off-putting scent had been the blood that covered her almost from head to toe mingled with the flowers she'd landed in, a smell nauseating in its combination. As such, she moves away from the gardens and to the fountain, sitting, weary, on its edge and washing off her face and hands. There is a room that, at one point, belonged to her inside the walls, and eventually she'll make her way there and bathe. There may be a mabari, too, who wasn't her hound from childhood, Calen, but Oren, named for her nephew.

It's all incredibly overwhelmingly, and on top of those new, old memories, she's still reeling from defeating the archdemon and-- dying. Robyn waits for the grief, which she remembers, now, so clearly from when Leliana had first warned her of her fate... but, it doesn't come. There's only a tired sort of resignation, the knowledge that the job had been done, and that this -- Wonderland -- is the only way to go forward with her life now.

The now rightfully-titled Hero of Ferelden lingers by the fountaion for a while, watching her reflecting idly, before moving inside to clean the tide of battle from her skin and armor. ]

[ It's many hours after she arrives in the gardens that Robyn remembers the network, that she thinks to pick up her device and to send out a message. She's freshly washed and no longer dressed for a fight, but when she does show her face, there's something distinctly different about it. Where she had just a week earlier seemed a little more the overeager girl, today she seems a great deal more Grey Warden than anything. ]

Greetings. [ Robyn speaks, tone crisp and polite, but almost distant, as if she's mentally somewhere else all throughout. ] I'm sorry if I... worried anyone. I've been told that I've only been gone a week, but as I suspect many of you know from experience, it was a little longer than that where I was.

[ She pauses, then scoffs faintly, shaking her head. ]

Well... to be honest, I couldn't say how much time passed. Maybe it wasn't so long after all. It felt like... ages.

[ Considering all that happened in Denerim with Howe, Loghain, the Landsmeet, and... the battle to follow. ]

I've come back unharmed. [ In case anyone had seen her earlier and was concerned about the amount of blood she'd been wearing. ] And... I hope the week has been kind.

[ Considering just before she'd left they had been tempted down into the Deep Roads, it's only fair that Wonderland let the lot of them off the hook every once in a while.

Robyn seems as if she's about too end the call, but she hesitates as something seems to come to mind. ]

Has... anyone seen my dog? I can only imagine what he may have been up to in the meantime...

( ooc ; feel free to encounter her during the action portion at any point in her return! )

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Not necessarily for survival, you mean. [ She makes a humming hmmm sound, still frowning, trying to compare its behavior with... anything else. ] It--

[ Wait, what? ]

Into our dreams? [ And her heart thrums; the archdemon is again at the forefront of her mind. ] How could it do that?

"You reckon?" [ Robyn repeats, laughing lightly, sensing that he'd had a good time no matter how he tries to mask it. ] Mm. Well, if there is another, I hope to see you there. I would go if only to say that I'd been to one, considering.

[ Alas, it doesn't seem likely that there would be another party so soon. ]

It does. [ She agrees solemnly. ] And even that aside, the hordes of darkspawn were... almost as bad. Wickedly violent, armed to the teeth, and-- well, you've fought darkspawn. They aren't ordinary monsters.

[ They're unique. Cursed. Like the Grey Wardens that fight them, separated forever from other people. ]

Denerim was in flames. [ She continues quietly. ] The attack was so sudden... many of our forces weren't there soon enough.

How does Wonderland do anything it does?

[Seriously. If she has an answer to that, he'd love to hear it.]

If it wants our memories, that's...probably the best place to go to get at them.

And I'll be glad of it. This sort of immortality -- it would only be sought after by the wrong sort of people.

[Most smart people didn't want to live forever.]

I have. [ He agrees with her grimly, because he hasn't faced many of them, but those he'd encountered in the Deep Roads had instilled a sense of wariness in him that was well-earned. ]

I'm sorry. I've heard stories of the Battle of Denerim, but I'm sure they still don't do it justice, or encompass the experience of actually being there, of fighting your way through her streets.

Heck, I've been to worse places. [There are so many worse places than in a clean ballroom with soft music and nothing that actively wants you dead. Sure, it had been outside of his usual comfort zone, but he'd only survived as long as he had by adapting to new situations.]

And if you're gonna be hopin' to see me there, I wouldn't wanna let you down.

Isn't it, though?

[ No, seriously. She's had enough surprises just in Wonderland, and certainly within the past year of her life in Ferelden, to last anyone's lifetime. Robyn scoffs faintly. ]

Oh, she told me all about you. [ Robyn says seriously, lowering her voice. ] She told me all about the notorious Anders, the one mage who swam across the lake and lived. She also mentioned that you were a blood mage and a shapeshifter and that you spend most of your time as a nug.

[ ... ]

Did you really escape that many times, though? [ She asks, clearly very invested in his misadventures. ]

_{[You're a funny one, Lady Cousland. With those large, expressive eyes, she has all the solemn gravity of storyteller sharing ghost stories around the campfire, and Anders' smirks.]}

I was with you up until the nug--Wynne knows I have better taste in animal forms. The blood magic, though...

_{[Well, he wouldn't put it past any of the senior enchanters to assume that about him. He shrugs it off, too accustomed to the accusation to be insulted by it.]}

Seven. It was seven times. That's my lucky number.

Well, yes, there is that.

[ She has to chuckle lightly, despite their situation, their lack of answers. ]

It isn't the only thing after our memories, with the vendors, and the... Core. [ Unless they're all working together, which is a definite possibility. All just different parts of Wonderland. ] If only we could choose which memories it stole.

[ There are definitely some that she wouldn't mind being rid of. ]

[ Yes. By some magisters, by blood mages, by people who seek power beyond their control. She nods solemnly. ]

We can only hope they aren't successful.

[ People aren't meant to live forever. It would throw off the way of the world, to say the least. ]

And we should hope none of them arrive here to study it.

[She furrows her brows.]

I can only imagine the troubles they'd bring.

[Souji's not so sure there's anything he'd be okay with forgetting, but he can definitely understand what she's coming from.]

Have you given the vendors a memory? I'd thought maybe they would let you choose.

It's true. [ It had been an awful sight, one full of blood and fire and rotten with the stench of death. She shudders faintly, almost paling at the recent memory. ] I... am not sure I'll ever be able to forget it, really.

[ Maybe after death, somehow, she won't have to dwell. Isn't that what the afterlife is about? Happiness? ]

Most in Wonderland are worse, I'd argue. [ Hence the little, knowing chuckle. ]

Then I will get my hopes up. [ She says sweetly, now grinning. ] I haven't been to a party in a long time. Or... it feels that way.

[ She sobers up at his words, realizing what she's said, and she immediately looks like a child whose hand was caught in the cookie jar, biting at her lower lip and dropping her gaze. ]

... I'm sorry. That was... insensitive. [ Maker knows her experience with blood magic is next to zero. Jowan, the events at Kinloch Hold... Morrigan, maybe. Not much, personally. ] Wynne never said anything like that about you.

So many from Thedas have already come and gone... [ Or stayed. Still, it brings a sigh to her breath and she shakes her head a little. ] If they do arrive, even if they study it, they can't take that knowledge back with them. We do have that on our side.

[ She hopes. ]

I haven't, but... [ Hmm. He makes a good point. ] I don't know for sure whether or not they let you choose. I've only heard that you don't. I'm afraid they could take something precious to me.

[ Maker knows there are dozens of memories that she's unwilling to part with. ]

_{[Funny and sweet. He laughs the apology off, shaking his head to show he doesn't expect an apology.]}

Don't make that face, it doesn't suit you! What's a little blood mage humor between Wardens? It's fine; I'm sure most would believe it, if just to ease their conscience. Being suspected of blood magic comes with the territory of being an apostate.

_{[Wynne had been a kind mentor to the younger apprentices and he'd admired her in his own way, but she'd been an advocate for the Circle in the end. A traditionalist. He'd hadn't been in the good graces of rule-abiding Circle mages, and he never will be.]}

Wynne travelled with a reputed Witch of the Wilds. I'd hope her horizons were broadened a bit by having another apostate around.

I shouldn't have made light of it! [ She insists. ] I met enough apostates to know not to say things like that. I can't say much of the Circle, since I'm not a mage, but I've certainly been trying to avoid stereotypes. Honestly, knowing Dorian has helped with that.

[ Being the Tevinter mage, and all. Not a magister, though, or not yet. ]

Wynne and Morrigan... had limited interactions. [ She says slowly, thinking back. ] Morrigan taunted Alistair relentlessly, but she wasn't much for conversation with anyone. I only learned more about her by pestering her in camp.

[ As she tends to do, what with the attempts to befriend nearly everyone, and all. ]

Wynne isn't what I expected from a... wizened Circle mage, that's all I can say.

[ She heard a lot about the woman's drinking habits in snippets of conversation between the enchanter and Oghren. ]

You're right about that. One safeguard this place has that works for us, fortunately.

Yeah, I know the feelin'. That was the fanciest kinda party I've ever been to.

[Definitely the fanciest party he's ever been invited to. Most people in the wastes didn't have time for parties, unless they were rich enough and eccentric or just plain selfish enough to be able to ignore the outside world.

He didn't get invited to their kinds of parties.]

Fine, if you insist, your penance is complimenting my immaculate spellcasting and pouring a hot bath and staying there until you get pruny.

_{[How's that for making amends?]}

I wish I'd been there to see that! _{[A laugh.]} Persnickety Wynne out on the road, camping in the dirt with that dwarf, Oghren!

_{[Anders can handle roughing it, but going on assignment with Oghren is like living in a miasma of alcohol fumes co-mingling with flatulence.]}

If we're not sure, it's probably better to avoid it if you don't have to.

[Unfortunately, he can think of situations Wonderland could put them in that might get bad enough that trading memories to the vendors would be impossible to avoid.]

Unless we can find someone who knows for sure, that is.

One of few. [ Robyn sighs, looking gradually more tired. ]

... I think I may leave for now, if that's all right; I need some time to... to think. And to rest a bit. [ She admits, with a little smile, albeit a strained one. ]

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➶ four (action & video)

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