RP: Cullen (maebyrutherford)

[lavellanfadewalk]

Everything was wrong.
That Skyhold was all wrong, quiet and eerie.
The Fade was wrong too, nothing to be seen for miles and miles where the eyes could reach.

Her private quarters lacked her personal belongings and the Great Hall didn't have her throne or decorations of choice; that was some Skyhold, but not her Skyhold. On the top of it, nothing of that was a dream; she knew she was inside the Fade in flesh, but there was also the unsettling feeling of when she visited the Crossroads with Morrigan, before defeating Corypheus. The emptiness filling the place, the thick air, the same inexorable sensation of fragility when walking over the thin ice on the top of a lake, impossible to now when a crack would engulf her and claim her life to the frozen depths.

Without noticing, when looking for a safe place, her legs dragged her to Cullen's Office; empty was well, without the usual safe aura provided by the Commander to the Inquisition Forces. Aria let out a tired sigh, sitting with her back against the bookshelf. The green mark throbbled in her hand and she shivered, without a single clue of what to do.

Comments

[maebyrutherford]

Cullen approached the door to his office, after exhausting every corner of the empty keep and not seeing another soul, living or otherwise. He returned out of habit, he didn't know what else to do.

When he opened the door, at first he saw nothing, then something moved out of the corner of his eye. He pointed his sword in that direction; a shadow was forming, in the shape of a person, flickering into being. He watched and waited, ready for a fight, and then the shape solidified into - an elf.

[lavellanfadewalk]

Aria was caught off-guard when hearing the sound of a sword sliding from its sheath, but her frightened mind was quick to work around the surprise; she rolled to her side in a swift move, seeking for hiding behind the heavy table and pulling her staff, using the momentum to stand up and face whoever was there.

It was Cullen.
Or, at least, had his face.
Wary he could be a demon, she kept her guard up.

"Cullen?..."

[maebyrutherford]

"Aria?" He desperately wanted - needed to believe it was really her, but he couldn't be too careful. It certainly looked and sounded exactly like the Inquisitor.

He moved closer, still pointing his sword in her direction. "Is it truly you? Tell me something only you could know, something a demon nor spirit could not impersonate, so I know this isn't a trick of the fade."

[lavellanfadewalk]

"Fuck, Cullen, I could say just the same."

She motioned to approach him, but stopped in the middle of the action, still wary.

"Okay... during Haven we argued about me staying behind to keep the blighted dragon busy. You were the one who found me in the snowstorm, or so Varric told me. When we first arrived in Skyhold I thought you would scold me for staying behind but you... didn't. And I helped Sera to uneven your desk... sorry about that, by the way."

She pursed her lips and avoided his gaze in a childish manner, as she used to do, bouncing on her heels.

[maebyrutherford]

Relief washed over him. It wasn't so much her words - a demon could have very well tapped into her thoughts and pulled those details, he supposed - but it was the way she talked to him that told him it was really her. The mannerisms, the way she carried herself; it felt right.

Cullen sheathed his sword. "Sorry, I had to be sure. It's...good to see you. I've been wandering around for hours - or for what feels like hours, anyway - and haven't encountered another soul. Have you? Do you have any blasted idea of what's going on?"

She opened her mouth to answer, then he asked with urgency, "This is the Fade, isnt' it? Just like at Adamant?"

[lavellanfadewalk]

"Yes, the Fade, but not quite the Fade. See, there's no Black City in the horizon, and it should be visible from anywhere in the Fade. This is some Fade, with people we may know or not exactly either." she shrugged, staff now put down "Varric is our Varric, though. I'm not sure about the others, but neither have met them in flesh."

Aria approached Cullen, the tension visible in her frame easing a bit. His scent, his body heat when nearby, everything seemed right and familiar. The first thing since she arrived.