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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
keep_busy
keep_busy
"I can't see any reason not to. There aren't any darkspawn I'm interested in protecting from disintegration. Or spiders I desperately wanted to leave unfileted."
first-and-final
He laughs. "Yeah. So that'll be what I set up today. ...Also, in preparation for you actually meeting any other dwarves, I should make this explicit: The official story Bhelen and I are sticking to is that he thought I killed Trian and I thought he set me up, but when I came back we had a heart-to-heart and realized it must have been someone else's fault and now we are figuring out who."
keep_busy
"Okay. In similar preparation, before and after announcing our betrothal what's the decorous level of public display of affection?"
keep_busy
"Okay. Is there any reason not to just tell people exactly where I came from and how I came to have weird magic powers?"
first-and-final
"They might think we've all gone insane. I say delay that revelation until the Legion of the Dead have been disintegrating darkspawn for at least a week."
first-and-final
"Since we met you in the Deep Roads, it's perfectly plausible for you not to want to talk about how you got there or what happened while we were all being chased by darkspawn. You can just say you don't prefer to discuss it once anyone wants more information than that."
first-and-final
"I haven't caught you saying anything I'd consider especially rude... some people might be rude to you, I'm not sure what to do about that."
keep_busy
"Should I avoid being rude back? I have this habit of getting really quite sarcastic with people who behave contemptibly."
first-and-final
"If you want to indulge, feel free. If I'm present at the time I can also get sarcastic on your behalf. Well, I guess I should qualify that - please don't get sarcastic with Bhelen, and if you don't know who somebody is and suspect that they might be important, consider refraining. But I think I can recover from nearly any social disaster caused by you being rude to someone who was rude to you first."
first-and-final
"It's really unlikely that you'll run into Bhelen and not know who you're talking to. Not impossible, I guess. I'll see if I can arrange for you to meet him soon, but getting you to the Legion of the Dead is much more important."
keep_busy
Nod nod. "...are there unusual social protocols with them being, ritually dead, or whatever it is they are?"
first-and-final
"Not especially. You might annoy them if you ask after their personal lives, but it depends on the Legionnaire."
keep_busy
"Okay. Is there anything I might mistake for people being rude to me which actually isn't?"
first-and-final
"I'm sure there is, but I don't have a good way to identify it until it happens, not knowing your definition of rudeness."
first-and-final
Aeducan's memoir is a pretty interesting read. His tactical analysis of the darkspawn invasion is insightful and readable, with a straightforward explanation of how and why he ended up taking control of the defense effort, and how he pulled off so many incredible victories; his writings on his experience as a Paragon and his own personal life are shorter, but contain a lot of personality packed into that small space. Despite his many complaints about the failings of the society around him, he clearly loved his kingdom deeply.
And now Stalas is back!
And now Stalas is back!