entranceway | ➶ four (action & video)

Entry tags:

➶ 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! )

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Welcome back. [There's a wry tone to his voice.] If you want anything, you can always come by the diner.

[Souji and Robyn aren't what anyone would call close, but offering food is a thing you do when someone seems a bit not awesome.]

Who's blood was it?

( Because for the claims of unharmed there certainly is a sense of death hanging around Robyn. It's concerning! And new )

Thank you. [ She doesn't recognize him, exactly, but... there's a little nagging in the corner of her mind that suggests they'd spoken once or twice during her time in Wonderland. It's hard to recall all of the names and faces even hours after she'd returned. ] I-- mm. I... know we've spoken, but... you'll have to forgive me. I haven't gotten all of my memories back yet.

[ As such, she offers him a small, apologetic smile. ]

We have spoken, haven't we?

Not a person. [ Robyn replies promptly, though it's possible the blood of any number of the other soldiers might have gotten on her. ] ... It belonged to darkspawn. Monsters. If you spent any time underground recently, when the tunnels opened, you may have seen them.

[ All that seems so long ago, and yet... in Wonderland's time, it had only been a few weeks prior. It's enough to make her head spin. ]

How did you know?

[Souji nods. He doesn't smile back, but his expression also doesn't indicate that he's irritated or otherwise unhappy about the lapse in memory.]

I'm Souji. I taught you how to use the communication devices, but we never really talked much outside of that time.

[He pokes at his own, which jostles the feed just slightly.]

I run the diner on the eighth floor.

[She... has no idea how to breech this topic. Welp. Time to wing it.]

How're you holding up? Sounds like home wasn't too peaceful.

...You did miss a hell of a party, but nothing catastrophic.

[ Brennan shows up on the video almost immediately, looking torn between relief and worry. ]

Robyn! Are you alright? Your mabari's currently with Dorian and I, he's been making friends while you were... missing.

[ oh. oh, leliana really hopes she hasn't come from where she thinks robyn might have come from. but there isn't much time between the landsmeet and the end of things, is there? and not much happened that would make her--well. ]

Oren's been well looked after. [ leliana pauses. hesitates, really. ] How are you doing?

... I remember. [ Souji, she thinks, repeating the name in her mind and admitting a small, polite smile. ] Thank you for that, though it was... months ago now, I think.

[ If she is remembering her Wonderland timeline correctly. ]

Yes, I've been there a few times. [ More often than the bar, anyway. ] I may stop by there later to try and... clear my head.

[ Robyn might have once gone to the chapel or out into the woods, but the fact that she'd utilized those places for that purpose still hasn't returned to her. ]

It wasn't. [ The opposite, in fact, considering the scale of the battle. ] And I'm sorry to hear I missed something fun, for a change.

[ A party! She looks almost wistful, imagining for a moment the parties that would be thrown in Ferelden now that their kingdom was (is) safe and free from the Blight. The Warden admits a little sigh, lost briefly in thought. ]

What was the cause for celebration?

I'm just fine, Brennan. [ Where she might once have guessed the opposite, she finds her physical and emotional state to be... oddly good, after death. ] Thank you for taking care of him.

[ She images that Dorian is particularly pleased to have the hound staying with them. There's likely been a lot of drool involved. ]

There isn't anything wrong with my hand, though. [ The Warden remarks lightly, holding it up to show him, obviously referencing his own trip back to Thedas. ] Lucky me.

Maker, I forgot that you sound-- that you've come from another time. I just heard you.

[ Leliana, a decade younger, had been there in that last battle. She realizes now that the other rogue had been one of the people calling out to her as the bright light spilled out in a pillar from the felled archdemon. ]

Brennan told me. [ That's one small blessing, anyhow. ] I'm-- fine.

[ Is there a good word, really, for the sort of quiet uncertainty that follows after death? She wants to say more, to be as honest with Leliana as the other woman had been with her, but she hesitates. ]

Can we speak in person?

[ 'fine.' right. very convincing, robyn. ]

Of course. Where would you like to meet?

Right. It was a pretty long time ago. [Which is a big part of the reason he's not at all bothered by her not remembering him.]

You're welcome any time. You don't have to pay or anything. And if I'm not here, you can help yourself to the kitchen.

[ She considers the question, thinks of all the places that she used to find comforting, and... ends up shaking her head a little, though Leliana can't see it. ]

Anywhere. Wherever you are.

[ Wherever that may be is where she'll feel the safest at the moment. ]

_{[Their resident Hero of Ferelden is... back? Anders isn't about to say it to her face, but truth be told, he'd been unaware she was missing for that long. They really need to put bells on the Wardens here.]}

You returned to Ferelden for a time, then?

_{[All this back and forth between dimensions and timelines hurts the head.]}

I suppose a "welcome back" is in order!

I saw them. ( Too much of them ) I saw you earlier. There was a lot of blood.

I'm in my room. Come whenever you like.

[ there are hugs and kitty snuggles waiting. ]

[This Robyn looks much different from the one that was here a short time ago -- it's still so very bizarre.

She bites her lip, thinking of what exactly she ought to say.]

-- well, you did miss a ball of a sort. It was quite dazzling.

Don't think there was one. Someone was just lamenting that everything around here was terrible most of the time, and wanted to throw something big. Lots of dancing. I mostly just sat at the open bar.

[She laughs, a little bit. It would've been nice to see Robyn there.]

I'm sure there's gonna be more. People seemed really happy with it. I wouldn't be surprised if more started getting organized now that people have actually had a taste of a good time for once.

[A small pause.] ... Are you alright? You're, uh. More formal than usual.

['Formal', if that's what she wants to call it. Sure.]

[Alistair is quick to appear when he sees her message, relief clear on his face.]

Robyn! You're back! I was getting worried.

[Her room had still been there and so had Oren so he'd been fairly sure she'd come back sooner or later. But there was always that niggling fear when someone disappeared that this time it would be for good. And even if it were a temporary absence that didn't mean everything was fine. He didn't think she'd died again somehow but Wonderland could be so unpredictable. And if she'd been sent back to Ferelden, it would be during the Blight where they both knew she could die. Seeing her back and in one piece doesn't allay all those fears but it's a start.]

What happened?

I would never! [ The Warden laughs lightly, somehow surprised. ] I couldn't just go in and take what I was hungry for, I'm not a... pilfering child.

[ Her almost-guilty grin suggests, though, that she'd once been such a child. ]

... In any case, I'd hope to see you there, to be able to speak in person rather than... on this. Though I am glad that I know how to use it, thank you.

For a time. [ Long enough for the Blight to be ended, though she's not particularly ready to talk about the... gritty details. ]

Well, thank you. [ She says with a bright laugh. ] I suppose a "it's good to be back" is in order.

[ And it's true, considering that not much good is waiting for her back in Ferelden, or, more accurately, wherever Fereldens go when they die. ]

Ah. [ Welp. ] ... I'm sorry that you had to see the darkspawn and I hope you weren't hurt. I'm also sorry that you saw me in that... state.

[ Bloody and disoriented. ]

There was a battle. [ Robyn explains quietly. ] A... very big one, just before I was brought back here.

I will.

[ And it isn't very long before the Warden does arrive at Leliana's room, knocking lightly, hovering in faint agitation. ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 9

➶ four (action & video)

video;

video.

video;

video.

video;

video

[ Video ]

voice.

video;

video

[ Video ]

voice.

voice.

video;

voice.

video;

video.

voice.

Video;

video

video

video;

video;

video.

voice. -- action.