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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
keep_busy
"I'm not but I'm engaged to one. And I'm from really really far away. Is it the wrong dialect of Elvish or something, what's wrong with it?"
"It's... you don't..." He shakes his head, at a loss for words.
Another elf approaches. She looks at the sign and frowns in confusion. "What's that say?"
"This shem thinks she speaks Elvhen," which is indeed the name of the language, "but she doesn't know anything. And she's from Orzammar."
"Where'd you learn that much elvish in Orzammar?" the second elf wonders.
Another elf approaches. She looks at the sign and frowns in confusion. "What's that say?"
"This shem thinks she speaks Elvhen," which is indeed the name of the language, "but she doesn't know anything. And she's from Orzammar."
"Where'd you learn that much elvish in Orzammar?" the second elf wonders.
keep_busy
"I... didn't. I have a weird magic power that lets me speak any language or I wouldn't even speak Thedan very well. It just says the same thing as the other half of the sign."
"Oh," says the second elf.
"Wait, seriously?" says the first elf.
"This is huge! We have to tell the Keeper!"
"I don't even believe it," says the first elf.
"Wait, seriously?" says the first elf.
"This is huge! We have to tell the Keeper!"
"I don't even believe it," says the first elf.
The first elf makes a face.
The second elf explains, "The humans outlawed our language once. We've kept bits and pieces, but no one's actually spoken Elvhen in - I don't know, thousands of years. If you could teach it to us... it would be amazing!"
The second elf explains, "The humans outlawed our language once. We've kept bits and pieces, but no one's actually spoken Elvhen in - I don't know, thousands of years. If you could teach it to us... it would be amazing!"
keep_busy
"Um, I can actually just share around the magic power in question to anybody who wants it but it has a weird side effect."
"What's the side effect?" says the second elf.
"Uh, maybe we shouldn't..." says the first elf.
"I don't care! I want to speak Elvhen! She lived through it," she gestures at Annie.
"Uh, maybe we shouldn't..." says the first elf.
"I don't care! I want to speak Elvhen! She lived through it," she gestures at Annie.
keep_busy
"It's faceblindness. It doesn't affect me because I'm also actually blind for other reasons but if you borrow it - I can take it back if you don't like it - you won't be able to recognize people by looking at their faces."
"Whoa," she says, blinking. "Hey - it worked!" She grins.
"Do you still recognize me?" the first elf asks anxiously.
"Pff, I'd know that voice anywhere even if you hadn't been standing next to me this whole time," she says, rolling her eyes. "It's not that bad, come on."
"Well, I'm not doing it."
"You don't have to. As long as I don't get eaten by darkspawn, we're fine."
"Do you still recognize me?" the first elf asks anxiously.
"Pff, I'd know that voice anywhere even if you hadn't been standing next to me this whole time," she says, rolling her eyes. "It's not that bad, come on."
"Well, I'm not doing it."
"You don't have to. As long as I don't get eaten by darkspawn, we're fine."
"Yes," says the second elf, "it's, it's..."
"It's like you're saying 'hey, remember that language my people took from your people? I have it and you don't,'" says the first elf. "And nobody's going to know it's some crazy magic thing. So it's like you just wrote some fake Elvish on a sign to make fun of us, or you're a scholar who's studied our language out of books we don't even have."
"It's like you're saying 'hey, remember that language my people took from your people? I have it and you don't,'" says the first elf. "And nobody's going to know it's some crazy magic thing. So it's like you just wrote some fake Elvish on a sign to make fun of us, or you're a scholar who's studied our language out of books we don't even have."
"Anyway, what's the deal?" says the first elf.
"I'm going to go tell everybody I speak Elvhen now," says the second elf. She dashes off.
"I'm going to go tell everybody I speak Elvhen now," says the second elf. She dashes off.
keep_busy
"Oh, the deal is that Orzammar has a caste system and the dwarves who aren't in it can't legally sell things to the others. I invented a rune light that will let plants grow underground and they're starting a potato farm now but they need non-dwarves to buy the stuff and sell it to other dwarves if it's not just going to be subsistence farming or organized crime."
"...So you want to pay people to buy food from dwarves and... sell it to other dwarves?" he puzzles out.
keep_busy
"Yes. Well, probably you'd just take a cut from the food sales, but you could still undercut the prices of imported plant food by a whole lot. And hopefully eventually the dwarves who can reverse that law will do that, and then the job will kind of evaporate, but we don't know how long that'll take."