RP: Open to anyone

[cullen_fadewalk]

Cullen straightened, then slowly rose to his feet. He was in the main yard of Skyhold all right, but there were telling differences even beyond the troubling sky. The greenery hadn't all been stripped away, for one. The Herald's blood red banners were nowhere to be seen. The tavern still stood, and the high parapets were bare of their bristling defenses.

If he could ignore the tempest going on above his head, it almost seemed...peaceful. Like it was before things started going so wrong.

He turned in a slow circle, chains clanking, and silently noted the changes--then went perfectly still when he heard a footfall.

Comments

[heromiyuu]

"Cullen... is that really you?"

The woman stared at him, curious, uncertain about approaching him or not.

"It is me, Neria... Neria Surana."

[cullen_fadewalk]

(ooc: Since there are three of us, we're going to do a posting order to keep it tidy! Cullen, Surana, Alistair, then back to Cullen and so on. So my rep will be to Alistair, but include a response to you, and your rep will follow just after!)

[heromiyuu]

(ooc: works for me! ^^)

[exiledalistair]

It had taken Alistair four doors and a trip through some sort of creepy library covered in cobwebs to find a way out of the cloister garden he'd found himself, and in all that he hadn't seen a soul. At one point he thought he'd heard footfalls but when he'd hurried down the corridor he'd been met with an empty kitchen.

Not empty empty. Sausages had hung from hooks in the rafters, and there was a row of baskets that looked like they held bread rising for the morning near the hearth. And while it was tempting, that giant wheel of crumbly yellow cheese, he'd passed it by. He wasn't entirely certain this wasn't the Fade, and just because Morrigan had laughed at him when he'd mentioned the old tales of eating the food of demons and being ensnared, calling him a fool and a... regardless, he wasn't going to go stuffing cheese in his mouth just because it was there.

For once.

When he finally found his way out into the main yard the gates were the first thing that drew his eyes, closed up tight, but unmanned. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and then dragged it down his face. That was when he caught sight of the man in chains standing in the dirt.

Well, he was a person. Didn't look like he was in the best shape, but maybe he'd have answers? Alistair approached slowly, a whistle rising to his lips, because of course that would definitely be unthreatening and not annoying at all. The sound died when he caught sight of the elf woman, heard her say the name Cullen.

He'd heard that name before, hadn't he?

[exiledalistair]

(OOC: Sorry if that isn't okay. Not sure what the protocol is for open threads with more than one participant.)

[cullen_fadewalk]

(OOC: Perfectly okay! We'll do a posting order to keep things tidy. Cullen, Surana, then Alistair, then back to Cullen and so on.)

[cullen_fadewalk]

Not one set of footsteps, then, but two. Usually he was sharper than this. (But then, usually he wasn't coming off of weeks in a dungeon.) He looked between them, managing to keep the flinch of shock off his face but unable to control the way he suddenly went bone white at the sight of them.

"...Neria," Cullen began slowly. "And Alistair?" Neither of them could be here. It wasn't possible, unless--

"So," he said. "The Herald did manage to kill me, then?"

[heromiyuu]

"The Herald what? No, I guess she doesn't, you seem quite alive for me and I don't recall dying in my sleep." and she turned to see Alistair, frowning at his looks, worried "Creators take me, what happened to you Alistair? You are hurt..." she approached him "and smelling like Oghren."

[exiledalistair]

Alistair rubbed at his jaw, eyes flicking from Cullen to the woman, Neria, and back. Maybe that blighted merchant's guard had hit him harder than he thought. He recalled Cullen, maybe, just the slightest iddy bit. But this Neria wasn't familiar to him.

At all.

He took a step back as she approached him, and sputtered at the accusation. "Oghren?! Oghren. I do not... and how... Why would you even know what that damned dwarf smells like? Go around sniffing strange beards do you?" He cut a glance at Cullen. "Why do you look so familiar?" His voice had pitched up, just a touch, and the pain in his head was throbbing with the elevation in his pulse.

[cullen_fadewalk]

You're both dead, so I must be too.

He didn't say the words, though it was a near thing. He almost felt reckless enough to do it--but the shock in Neria's face, and the frank confusion on Alistair's was enough to have him biting his tongue. At least for now.

Wait and watch and see. If this wasn't death, then it could be the Herald pulling one of her tricks again. But what was the endgame in showing him two long-dead faces he used to trust and care for? And if this was a trick, which of them would she choose to have turn on him: the girl he'd fancied years ago, or the boy who'd been as close as a brother before he'd left to join the Wardens?

Young love or younger kinship; which would you take more pleasure in corrupting?

He had to play along. Until he could figure out exactly what was happening, he had to.

"We trained together," Cullen said, gaze ticking between the two of them. "We were friends, before Duncan came for you. And you--" this to Neria, "--I. What are you both doing in Skyhold?"

[heromiyuu]

Neria backed away from Alistair, shocked with his words, taking a deep breath before saying anything. She couldn't let her voice tremble, not now.

"I am Neria Surana, Warden Commander of Ferelden. I left the Circle of Magi..." she glanced Cullen, quickly, before her gaze went back to Alistair "And Duncan recruited me to the Grey Wardens. We fought the Blight together, we won. We avenged Duncan and the others betrayed by Loghain and you..." her voice faultered "You came to Vigil's Keep with me, so we could bring the Wardens back to Ferelden. And Oghren is very dear friend... he named his daughter after me. You must remember something... anything..."

The last word came out as a non-intentional plea and she cursed in her mind for it, bitting back the will to approach him again. Being in front of Cullen did little to help too. I spend part of my life thinking I turned my back on Cullen and now Alistair turns his back on me... the Creators surely have sense of humor...

[exiledalistair]

Alistair may still have been a little drunk. He laughed. It wasn't a kind laugh, not at all, and he couldn't decide who he wanted to laugh at harder. Both of them mentioning Duncan, like that was a key that would spring all his locks. Maker's breath.

"You, I can believe you were a Templar." His eyes flicked up and down Cullen, mapping the armor and the posture onto him. It hit him them. "You were at Kinloch when Uldred... the last year has not been kind to you, has it?" He shuddered, shifting his gaze to Surana. "And I remember plenty. Plenty I'm trying to forget. Getting my revenge on Loghain not on the list I'm afraid. You-- you are not the Warden-Commander of Ferelden."

He glanced up at the sky, then around the battlements, feeling a leaden sump of sickness building in his stomach. He swallowed against it, turned back to his new...ish acquaintances, and shrugged his broad shoulders. "I suppose if you were demons you'd be people I knew."

[cullen_fadewalk]

"Yes," Cullen said in a quiet voice, looking between them. A darker, twistier version of the boy he knew and an anxious Neria, both pulling him back to that place he'd spent long years clawing his way from. It made its own sick sort of sense. "That is how demons work."

Either way, he'd feel better with a sword.

Cullen passed Alistair, coiling the chains between his hands to keep them from rattling, and moved toward the smithy. His gaze skated over and away from Cassandra's usual corner, not pausing to see whether the two followed. He needed steel in his hand.

[heromiyuu]

"Cullen, wait!"

She motioned to pursue him before glancing at Alistair, gesturing for him to follow. Human men, couldn't them be more considerate about small, elven steps?

"If you want to get rid of those chains, let me help you!"

This is wrong, this is all wrong. What in the name of the Creators is going on?

[exiledalistair]

"Sure, just figure out where you're at. Surprise it's Skyhold! Because that explains everything," Alistair muttered. Like it was ever that easy.

He watched Cullen walk away with a grimace at the chains, and then frowned at the way the elf's imperious gesture at him tugged his feet into motion.

Apparently his feet had decided, quite independent of the rest of him, that tagging along with these two nutters who swore they knew him was better than being alone.

[cullen_fadewalk]

He hesitated, then glanced at Neria, giving her a faint nod. What is your endgame? There was a large part of him--bigger than he cared to admit--that had hope this was all, somehow, real. Neria and Alistair were different enough from his own memories of them that it almost felt possible.

Cullen cleared his throat and pushed open the door to the smithy, holding it for the both of them.

"We should devise a plan."

[heromiyuu]

"I agree."

Neria hovered around the smithy, looking for something to break the cuffs. She thought about offering to just melt the chains, but she wasn't in position to put her lucky to test around a jumpy templar. Anyway, the newly-found big, cutting pliers could do the trick too.

"As far as I know, I was heading west when I decided to camp. I woke up here, in some old, underground library. I haven't looked much around when I found you both."

[exiledalistair]

Alistair leaned in the doorway, folding his arms across his chest. He marked the racks of weapons that were waiting for attention or recently repaired.

"Spooky underground library. I saw that. On my way out here. So... Skyhold. A bit empty isn't it. You live here?" He peered at Cullen. "Wherever here is." He flexed his bruised hand, frowning down at the knuckles. Teach him to punch of man with the neck the size of a Qunari without wrapping them first.

He shifted, moving a bit further through the doorway, angling toward a rack of swords, letting his mouth run as he did so. He had no intention of attacking these people, but this was all very strange, and he'd feel better if he was armed. "Because you look like someone who has seen the wrong side of a cell door for a bit, but I don't see any guards, or jailors, or... whatever."

[cullen_fadewalk]

He visibly tensed as Neria approached him with the pliers--and tensed more as Alistair moved toward the swords, his gaze moving watchfully between the two. He had three attack and escape plans in play, just in case, and was constantly revising more. He didn't like his odds, though. It was like playing high stakes chess, except he couldn't be sure whether his opponents really were friend or foe.

He hated how paranoid he'd become.

"Thank you," Cullen murmured, forcing himself to offer Neria his hands. His next move was to trust, at least for now. He just had to keep reminding himself of that. "I live here. I am--was--the commander of the Inquisition's forces. I imagine that distinction was stripped away shortly before my execution. Though it would have been like her to let me keep it." As a taunt. "The Inquisitor has the ability to open rifts into the Fade. She also has...other talents. There's a good chance this literally is all in our heads."

[heromiyuu]

Neria struggled with the pliers, cursing her small frame mentally.

"Leliana always told me the nicest things about the Inquisitor, I really don't see why or how she would execute you. Besides, if this is in our heads, then how do you explain him?" she tipped her head towards Alistair, finally done with one cuff "This place is off, this is not like a walk in the Fade during a dream. Do you think, hm, your Inquisitor has the power to send this whole place into the Fade...? This just doesn't explain how we got here, but... maybe is a start?"

[exiledalistair]

Alistair swallowed, trying to work up moisture in his mouth. This was strange. And bad. Strange in his experience was often bad. This was well beyond the level of strange he'd grown accustomed to, where waking up in a flower bed with a splitting headache and no memory of how got there wasn't necessarily the nicest, but it wasn't... unforeseen.

But all this talk about the Inquisitor, Skyhold, the Inquisition as a whole as if these were things that people, actual, not-crazy people, knew about?

"Inquisition. Rifts in the fade. Ri-ight." He shook his head in a slow wag. "Commander of the Grey Wardens, at least I've heard of them." His eyebrow was arched, lips a little pursed as he peered at Cullen. "But how does one go from 'kill all the mages they're bad demon wrong yeargh I'm not even going to thank you for pulling me out of that horrible magic bubble' to Commander of an army for something I've never even heard of in less than two years?" He paused, counting on his fingers slowly, then nodded. It had been about fourteen months since Anora had so graciously elected not to chop off his head.

[cullen_fadewalk]

"Gracelessly," he told Alistair. "And in a lot more than two years. You're right," Cullen added to Neria, rotating his free wrist in relief. The cuffs had been rough and too-tight, the skin beneath a burnished red. "It makes sense for the two of you to be here for me, but if that's all you remember of me, then I'm clearly not here to tempt you, Alistair. So we can provisionally rule out demons, and while I can't completely rule out the Inquisitor using you to mess with my head, I'm willing to accept this at face value for now.

He stepped back when the second cuff clanked free. "Thank you," he said, then rubbed at his face. "First step: we arm ourselves. Second step: we fortify. Third: we compare everything we know about each other and the world. That may be enough to eliminate more possibilities."

[heromiyuu]

"I am as armed as I can ever be, but I guess some potions would really come in handy."

The mage backed to the nearest table, sitting while waiting for the men to arm themselves. They were unstabble and confused and this made her nervous, but it wasn't time to let anyone know it. Jäger is out there, somewhere, sticking his muzzle where he is not supposed to... few things are better than a mabari charge as back up, so let's just keep it to myself for now.

[exiledalistair]

"Well, if we're fortifying as part of the plan, can that be some place where there's beer?" Alistair scowled at the rack of weapons, ignoring the heating in his cheeks under the stubble, the idea that a demon would use his visage to tempt anyone drawing out small snakes of shame he thought he'd successfully drowned.

He let his fingers find the hilt of a sword that caught his fancy and he lifted it off the rack, giving it an experimental swing. He winced as he found new bruises and aches from the fight the night before, but the sword would do, balance good, edge keen.

[cullen_fadewalk]

"The requisitions room is near. We can find potions we need there--elfroot, lyrium, stamina, antivan fire. Bees." Sera's contribution, before the Herald drove her away.

He moved to select his own sword, not bothering to check its weight. He'd trained with it before, knew its heft. Cullen had always made a point of switching his weapon day to day. In the confusion of a real battle, there was no guarantee he could keep his own sword. He snagged a shield as well--deliberately choosing one that had not yet had Templar or Inquisition insignia painted onto steel--and slid its straps on with quick and deft movements, grateful that the Herald had chosen to leave him in his uniform. At least he was armored.

"The tavern is no good as a defensive position--too many points of entry. But it will have food and drink enough." He paused near Alistair, eyes deliberately focused down as he adjusted his shield. "Will you be good to fight with more ale in you?"

His tone was straightforward, no judgments. Who was he to judge, anyway? But if he was going to take these companions at face value, he needed to know. The bruises and astringent smell of him weren't promising, but this was Alistair. Cullen had seen the way he could fight.

The Warden, he already knew, could probably take them both. She was the Hero of Ferelden for a reason.


(OOC: I'm sorry, but I kind of love the image of them hunkering down all post-apocalyptic survivor-like with stockpiles of food and weapons and traps...because unless you stop him, Cullen will find a defensible position and start making it siege-ready.)