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Annie is on her trike on her way to school.
This van labeled HAZARDOUS MATERIALS is also on its way to school.
The van hits a patch of black ice. It goes spinning, it turns over, it slices itself open on a wrought-iron fence with spikes, and it disgorges boxes which smash open on the pavement. Some of them skitter clear into the slush.
Some of them - along with most of the van - land on Annie.
There is a whirl of bewildering pain and confusion -
- and she falls to the ground, injured and in more kinds of discomfort beyond that and moaning.
She slowly starts to heal before the eyes of her sole witness.
six artifact pileup annie in thedas
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keep_busy
first-and-final
"It's conceivable that they might be improved by cooking and that we might be able to find a functioning stove around here," says Stalas.
first-and-final
"A big metal box in somebody's kitchen, ideally with some form of fuel still in it and a cooking pot on top."
first-and-final
Stroll stroll.
That house over there totally has a big metal box in the kitchen with some lumps inside and a cooking pot on top!
That house over there totally has a big metal box in the kitchen with some lumps inside and a cooking pot on top!
first-and-final
"I'll see what I can do."
Stalas successfully causes fire. And hauls a potful of water up from the river so Annie can make spider stew.
With the disintegration power active, he is no longer personally encrusted in weeks-old darkspawn blood, but all of his clothing and equipment still is, and all forms of grime that aren't direly toxic remain in place. He silently revises his bathing plan to include laundry and armour maintenance beforehand.
Stalas successfully causes fire. And hauls a potful of water up from the river so Annie can make spider stew.
With the disintegration power active, he is no longer personally encrusted in weeks-old darkspawn blood, but all of his clothing and equipment still is, and all forms of grime that aren't direly toxic remain in place. He silently revises his bathing plan to include laundry and armour maintenance beforehand.
keep_busy
Annie rummages in the kitchen to see if there are any spices or flour or anything like that which might still be edible and make the spider more tolerable.
first-and-final
The kitchen has been abandoned for a thousand years. The only food items still recognizable are a small jar of anonymous seeds and a much larger jar of honey.
Meanwhile, Stalas hauls water. Haul haul haul.
Meanwhile, Stalas hauls water. Haul haul haul.
keep_busy
Oh god honey. She is not going to taint the honey with spider. She is going to hug that jar of honey and put it in her coat pocket to carry with her.
Do the seeds seem like they might be a spice? Which might improve spider?
Do the seeds seem like they might be a spice? Which might improve spider?
first-and-final
The seeds are really strongly flavoured, something in the anise/liquorice genre.
(Haul haul haul.)
(Haul haul haul.)
keep_busy
Well, anise is better than spider. She eats a seed on its own to make sure it tastes okay while the pot of spider is boiling. Then she puts a handful in with the boiling spider. What the fuck do these spiders even eat.
keep_busy
Annie finds a spoon.
When the stew is an undifferentiated mass of horrible glop she takes a bite.
When the stew is an undifferentiated mass of horrible glop she takes a bite.
first-and-final
It tastes strongly of liquorice and faintly of spider. The texture is unappealing but more or less palatable.
(Haul. Haul. Haul.)
(Haul. Haul. Haul.)
keep_busy
Right then. She will save the honey for later, she has no idea how long they'll be down here. She eats most of the pot of liquorice stew. ...She will save most of the honey for later and have one spoonful now. With a separate spoon that has no spider on it.
keep_busy
"Yeah, lots better. Helped that I found some sort of anise spice. And I found honey! Honey keeps forever. I might check other houses for it now I know what its texture's like."
keep_busy
Okay, if there are a total of four jars of honey she's going to consolidate them and eat whatever she can't fit into two jars, two being the number of coat pockets she has. ...She will do this in the "morning" so she doesn't have to eat spider for breakfast, no matter how much she wants to do it right now.
Annie finds the least horrible bed available and tells Stalas where it is and lays out her coat on it and lies down.
And has a long, awful cry, which she tries to keep subdued but has some trouble with because she is stone deaf and crying is not a form of language.
Annie finds the least horrible bed available and tells Stalas where it is and lays out her coat on it and lies down.
And has a long, awful cry, which she tries to keep subdued but has some trouble with because she is stone deaf and crying is not a form of language.
first-and-final
Stalas tries not to pay too much attention to the crying, on the principle that Annie deserves her privacy. He finally finishes hauling water, washes his clothes, cleans all his armour and weapons, finds that his clothes are still horrifyingly filthy, washes them a second time, takes his long-awaited bath, washes his clothes again, puts them on very reluctantly, and then decides that Annie ought to be able to have a bath too if she likes and hauls enough water out of the river that she will have this option available when she wakes up.
...And then he cleans his armour and weapons again. And contemplates washing his clothes again but decides that at this point it wouldn't gain him anything and he should instead try to see if he can detect any signs nearby that indicate the availability of a more appetizing meal than filet of spider.
He finds an unpleasantly populous spider nest, where all of the spiders are so tainted he can't even filet them and just disintegrates them completely on contact; and in the remains of the spider nest he finds several nug skeletons and Branka's expedition journal. He brings the book back across the river, reads it in front of the house where Annie is sleeping, then crosses the river again and pokes around the vicinity of the spider nest until he finds a live nug and a mushroom patch. Nug and mushrooms are brought to the house for Annie to have for breakfast.
It's been a while since his last breath of lyrium, but he doesn't feel like he's starting to run down. Weird. Still, they should look for lyrium first thing when next they set out.
...And then he cleans his armour and weapons again. And contemplates washing his clothes again but decides that at this point it wouldn't gain him anything and he should instead try to see if he can detect any signs nearby that indicate the availability of a more appetizing meal than filet of spider.
He finds an unpleasantly populous spider nest, where all of the spiders are so tainted he can't even filet them and just disintegrates them completely on contact; and in the remains of the spider nest he finds several nug skeletons and Branka's expedition journal. He brings the book back across the river, reads it in front of the house where Annie is sleeping, then crosses the river again and pokes around the vicinity of the spider nest until he finds a live nug and a mushroom patch. Nug and mushrooms are brought to the house for Annie to have for breakfast.
It's been a while since his last breath of lyrium, but he doesn't feel like he's starting to run down. Weird. Still, they should look for lyrium first thing when next they set out.
keep_busy
Annie wakes up, detects Stalas, and goes over to him and says, "Hi. Anything interesting happen while I was asleep?"