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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
"Excellent."
He gets up, puts on his golem suit, and goes to talk to someone from House Ortan and explain that Caridin's human guest would like to eat bread and butter. It doesn't take more than a few minutes, and by the time he's finished poking around in the kitchen, someone has arrived to deliver bread and butter for Caridin's human guest. Back to the bedroom he goes, with plenty of food for both of them, and when the door is closed he gets out of the golem suit again and starts eating.
"So - let's see - do you have a coherent summary of your system of governance available for me to compare to?"
He gets up, puts on his golem suit, and goes to talk to someone from House Ortan and explain that Caridin's human guest would like to eat bread and butter. It doesn't take more than a few minutes, and by the time he's finished poking around in the kitchen, someone has arrived to deliver bread and butter for Caridin's human guest. Back to the bedroom he goes, with plenty of food for both of them, and when the door is closed he gets out of the golem suit again and starts eating.
"So - let's see - do you have a coherent summary of your system of governance available for me to compare to?"
keep_busy
Mmmmmmmmbreadandbuttermmmmmmmmm. "Sure. Noregr has a king but it's mostly a ceremonial and celebrity position - people pay attention to him and he lives in a castle, but not because he has political power. I think he may formally have a little bit but it would be absolutely outrageous if he tried to use it outside of really extraordinary circumstances. Governance is handled by a group of fifty people who are elected by popular vote of all the adults in the country and serve three-year terms. They have a long elaborate process of coming to conclusions on non-emergencies and in emergencies the ones who have been around the longest form an emergency committee and conclude things faster. They sort of indirectly control the military and the courts and so on but there's some things they aren't allowed to touch like the press and religious stuff."
first-and-final
"I think 'it would be absolutely outrageous outside of really extraordinary circumstances' is a good description of the Assembly deciding to put some commoner on the throne," says Stalas.
He munches on some breakfast.
"So, the Assembly is a group of nobles, one to a House except for the really minor ones. They vote on certain matters of governance, sentencing of noble criminals, naming new Paragons, a few other things. A Paragon can be anyone, and once named they found their own noble House with its own Assembly seat, starting with themselves and their immediate family. The Assembly also confirms the succession every time there's a new king. It's nearly always just a formality to confirm the previous king's choice of heir, every so often they pick a popular well-supported noble instead, and then there was that one time they elected a commoner Paragon and king in a single vote, but things like that don't happen every day."
He munches on some breakfast.
"So, the Assembly is a group of nobles, one to a House except for the really minor ones. They vote on certain matters of governance, sentencing of noble criminals, naming new Paragons, a few other things. A Paragon can be anyone, and once named they found their own noble House with its own Assembly seat, starting with themselves and their immediate family. The Assembly also confirms the succession every time there's a new king. It's nearly always just a formality to confirm the previous king's choice of heir, every so often they pick a popular well-supported noble instead, and then there was that one time they elected a commoner Paragon and king in a single vote, but things like that don't happen every day."
first-and-final
"Well, Branka invented a kind of smokeless coal... Caridin created the Anvil of the Void but I'm not sure if that's what got him named Paragon or if he did something less exciting first... my ancestor Aeducan led the defense of the dwarven kingdom in the First Blight... basically, you get named Paragon if you do something incredible, worthy of respect, something other dwarves should aspire to."
first-and-final
"Depends. It might be all they can stomach just to reverse my exile and agree that I didn't murder Trian after all. But it's possible, I guess. Might make some things easier."
first-and-final
"When you're a Paragon, people argue with you less. I expect to live the sort of life that provokes a lot of argument."
first-and-final
"People are likely to disapprove of me marrying a human," he adds. "A lot of dwarves have trouble having children, I'm a noble and my father had three sons, it's sort of a waste - humans and dwarves can have children but it's even rarer than dwarves alone, and our hypothetical offspring would be noticeably human-ish. I find myself much less motivated by the responsibility to have children when I'm planning on making everyone immortal anyway, though."
keep_busy
"Oh, um. ...I don't have any strong feelings about having children, either way. Humans kind of have the opposite problem with fertility, I was actually taking a pill for it not because I was sleeping with anyone but because my mother thought it was a good idea on general principle for a college student, but it'll have worn off by now. Is humanishness a problem in itself or is it just that it would... be unlikely?"
first-and-final
"Humanishness is a little bit of a problem. Which is another thing that me being a Paragon would help with. Anyway, for all I know maybe strange glowing golem-men can't have children at all and it's a totally inconsequential concern. I used to feel pretty strongly that I should have children someday; now... I'm not moved to make any special effort to seek or avoid them."
first-and-final
"I glow, principally right after breathing lyrium fumes or wearing my golem suit. And I have just added 'restore Annie's sight' to the list of impossible problems I want to solve someday, right after 'become immortal'."
He hugs her.
He hugs her.
keep_busy
Hug! "I guess a reasonable first step on the immortality thing is seeing if it's particularly special that I have sourceless access to rune information. I also want to find, like, a hospital or the local equivalent and poke everyone in it but that seems irresponsible without knowing more about the drawback."
first-and-final
"I really want to test that drawback... will you be less upset about me doing that if I promise to ask for a hardier volunteer if I find it genuinely difficult and unpleasant?"
first-and-final
"It seemed like it was very intense but over very quickly, and that's my favourite kind of pain," he says. "From the way you and Ruck reacted, I expect it to be not much more than slightly annoying as long as I don't do something stupid like have someone sing at me for an hour. And if I figure out the parameters of the drawback, I can decide whether I'm comfortable having the healing thing on all the time, and I'd really like to have the healing thing on all the time if the drawback wouldn't be unsustainably awful, because of that thing where I bruise easily. Wearing the golem suit seems to protect me a lot more than I'm used to, but I don't think I can rely on that forever."
keep_busy
"...Okay," she says softly, this argument being rather unmistakably tailored for her unique argument reception characteristics. "Um, and also the range might matter. It's clearly not about whether the person can hear it or not. So you should probably do it progressively nearer to me after getting to some obviously safe distance based on how likely people are to be humming near this house."
first-and-final
"I'm not testing it on you, that would be cruel," he says. "The whole reason I want to be the one to test it in particular - well, no. Part of the reason I want to be the one to test it in particular is my overactive sense of responsibility. But most of the reason why I want to, and the reason I feel like I can convince you, is that I don't feel pain as strongly as most people. Or maybe I'm just more used to it, I don't know. Either way, there is less unpleasantness overall if it's me rather than someone else."
first-and-final
"Find someone who's making music and walk nearer to and farther from them. There's a tavern on the other side of the city that might do it if singing and/or instruments qualify - they often have music there."
keep_busy
"...If it scales up with quantity or volume or something and it's worse than when it was just Ruck humming a little, you might not be able to leave if you get within range of that."
first-and-final
"Which is why I'm asking one of Caridin's friends to come with me and pick me up and carry me off if I collapse, yeah."