Can't stop won't stop

[justice_is_blond]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Myrobalan Shivana and Anders
RECIPIENT: All denizens of the Gallows
WHAT: At long last, a cure for Rifter Valley Fever.
WHEN: whenever
WHERE: wherever
NOTES: None applicable.

Good evening.

[Anders’ voice is tired, but calm and collected.]

As we set up to make sure we reach everyone, we have an announcement: we've found the cures. Myr?

[If someone can sound gently frazzled, Myr does.] Magebane first, to clear up the infestation. You should’ve gotten yours by now, but if we’ve missed someone, [all too likely they have,] you can stop by the infirmary for it. Serah Colin is managing our supply.

[There’s a too long-pause and a half-audible aside--something about “forgetting”--before he adds,] Rifters will want to speak to Madame de Cedoux since she’s not liable to forget you’re here.

That's the easy bit. [There's the noise of papers and then Anders continues:]

Rifters, we need you to bring an object you're willing to be bound to for a few hours. It's temporary, and it will stabilize your presence here for the other two stages. If you don't have one, we'll provide books.

The third step is a little complicated. Rifters need to experience and process a lot of different emotions, the more complex, the better. You're becoming like spirits; this will establish your… personhood, so to speak.

Non-Rifters, if there's something out of place in your living quarters, or things you can't remember getting, you may have strong ties to a Rifter and they may need your help for this third step. The binding should mean that you'll be able to remember them and their significance to you when you see them.

[There's a pause and a quiet huff of air.] It may take time and work. Patience will be key.

The Lady Thevenet, Enchanter Hawthorne, and Serah Averesch will be helping with the binding process.

And if that all weren’t complicated enough, [gentle sarcasm,] there’s one additional step, once you’re feeling like your old selves again. You’ve come loose from Thedas in all of this, and you’ll need to have one of our templars reinforce your being a part of the world and not the Fade.

I’m told the process can be disorienting, but it’ll also be very brief. Ser Ashlock has volunteered himself for that.

[Anders clears his throat.]

Potentially more than merely disorienting, as one who has… experienced that. But as you'll be bound the effects should be lessened, and know that we would not call in a Templar to do this unless absolutely necessary.

Once you're cured, Rifters, please check in with myself or Myrobalan so we can check your name off the list; we need to make certain no one is missed.

If you've any questions, please ask. We'll be here until the last Rifter is cured.

Comments

[paladingus]

[Ser Ashlock, fortified with a strong dose of magebane and a little extra bump of lyrium to get him through the day, has used the time the healers have spent organizing to bathe and put on clothes that aren't stained with blue sweat.

Shaving will have to wait, as will napping, but he's spent enough of this ordeal being useless and bedridden as it is. Time to make up for it. He has a spring in his step again as he makes for the infirmary to render the promised service, and unrestrained admiration in his voice.]

Three cheers for the healers, everyone! Maker knows where we'd be without them right now. To Serah Shivana, and-- [An audible pause, steeling himself both for the praise and the respectful title he knows he's got to use in parallel.] Warden Anders.

[justice_is_blond]

[He raises an eyebrow, waiting to see what follows the pause... and is a little surprised. It would have been very easy to say 'everyone else.'

Anders inclines his head in acknowledgment.]

And thank you for your blood. We'd not have seen a definite link without it.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Myr lifts his head at the sound of Simon's voice, only keeping his smile to something proper and social (rather than the delighted idiot grin he'd like it to be) by force of will alone.]

As the Warden said--we'd've been in real difficulty without you. Thank you.

How're you holding up? Have you caught any sleep yet?

Voice, so much panic.

[laurenande]

...What?

[It is absolutely impossible for Galadriel to sound more put out, more aghast and, frankly, horrified than she does in this moment. If anyone can recall speaking with her, this will be a singular event.]

Bound to an object?

[This sounds perilously similar to how one acquires Dark Lords. Do you want Dark Lords??? This is how you get Dark Lords. This also sounds like the fastest way to make her into something hideous and evil and she is having a time processing it.]

This cannot be the only path; I will not bind my fëa to some...thing for you to use. I will not be party to the spread of shadow. I will not be reduced to an echo trapped inside some bauble.

Re: Voice, so much panic.

[justice_is_blond]

You're not being put into anything, I assure you. You're being linked to an object for a few hours, ma'am, and that will be all. After you've been stabilized you'll be free to come and go, I promise, no objects involved.

Worst reassurance ever

[utulien_aure]

Perhaps it is not the only path, but I am loath to discard a possible solution when all our lives may linger in the balance.

I am volunteering. If the healers here have malicious intent, or are simply mistaken, there need not be more than one of us who suffers for it.

[utulien_aure]

Need the object be native to Thedas?

[justice_is_blond]

I... hm.

[There's a pause as he considers the question.]

A foreign object should be fine, I'd think, so long as there's nothing magical to it. Things don't tend to touch the Fade unless they're enchanted or Fade-touched. Bring it in and remind me of the question and I will take a look at the object, Ser.

[tar_minyatur]

I keep falling through things, but my own stuff seems okay, will that work for a binding?

[justice_is_blond]

Your own stuff as in things from your world? I'm not certain if that would work, but... a moment. There. My notes say I'd think it would suffice if there is nothing magical to it.

[dirth]

Do you require any assistance? I have studied bindings of this nature.

[laurenande]

[Of course he has studied such things--Solas, of all of them would be able to find another route, something that is not so terribly alike to her worst fears. Few others have remembered her, but he swore to her, made her a promise, surely he would not forget? Right?

...right?]

This is madness, is it not? This cannot be safe, can it?

[justice_is_blond]

We would welcome the assistance, Solas. Please join us.

[winterwinds]

And I have cookies!

Not to bind people to, of course I...

Well I suppose I could but that would be weird.

But I baked them when I wasn't taking notes, and there's... a lot, so come and get fixed up and have a cookie. They're edible I promise.

[justice_is_blond]

Are there plenty of them?

[A certain healer would like a cookie; the sweetness would be a welcome boost.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Okay, when you say bound to...you mean like, what, I pick up a necklace, and now it's stuck to my hand for a couple hours?

[faithlikeaseed]

[He makes a brief noise that's close to a laugh.] Not quite, serah. One of our mages who can do a binding will cast a spell on you and the necklace, tying you to it and the rest of the world. And then you might not want to put it down and walk away from it because it will break the binding--but it's not stuck to you physically.

[arlathvhen]

[ She sounds tired--what else is new, everyone is tired--but deeply relieved. ]

Thank the Creators. Let me know if you need help or anything coordinated, or--anything, really. I'm glad that this is finally over.

I think after this is all done, we all deserve a few days to just...sleep. Everyone has done an amazing job stepping up for this.

[justice_is_blond]

We need the quarantine lifted.

[There's no anger in his voice, just certainty.]

I'm going to Darktown as soon as they're all cured. I'd like to use a boat for that because I'm tired.

[youwonscience]

Hey, this is Cosima.

[She's gotten used to saying.]

Are there any particular requirements for what kind of object? Like, does it need to be native to Thedas, for example?

[This is good news, but she is tired and she sounds it.]

[justice_is_blond]

[Finally, a name he can place. It may be because her name is all over his notes, or it may be because they've apparently spent a lot of time working together recently.]

As long as it isn't magical, anything should work. Perhaps not the onion rings, though.

[crowncitizen]

We're actually becoming ghosts? Uh, wow. That's... yeah.

[At least they finally figured it out?? Go team??]

I got something in mind, so long as it doesn't have to be something from Thedas. Like, I'm kinda nervous but I think I'm more desperate at this point than nervous.

[justice_is_blond]

Not ghosts. Spirits. Creatures of the Fade, not things made up to scare children and trespassers.

[He's a little amused.]

And as long as the object isn't magical it should be fine.

Come here for emotional support Anders (and optional cat)

[justice_is_blond]

Heyoooo log for ease on phone.

[laurenande]

Her books rest in her hands and she can't help but stare down at them. Notes, diaries, maps, and translations, all of them hers and all of them bound to this land more surely than she is. It's a terrifying thought, that this is her only anchor in a storm, and so she clings to them tightly. She does not feel twisted, nor corrupt, and so the worst of her terror has ebbed, but it will not leave her while a part of her remains locked in these books.

She does not expect to see Anders again, not so soon after her last talk with him, but her wandering has brought her close enough to hear his song. It stokes the fear within her as well, but it is a familiar sensation, low-grade and distant. She ignores it and wonders if, perhaps, he will know her on sight.

She expects not.