i'm losing my mind

[wittyskepticism]

WHO: Astrid Hawke
WHERE: By the forest in 6I, then all over
WHEN: October 7th
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: TBD

---

In all honesty, for the longest time Hawke has been expecting something to blow up. Ever since the earthquakes and especially since the eclipse and the rash of illnesses, she has been expected something to happen. A darkspawn invasion, the world to implode, a Rift into the Fade. Something. But for the most part, things have been relatively normal. For whatever passes as normal in this strange little village.

So when she spies what looks like a pear tree in full bloom, complete with actual pears, she is both suspicious and intrigued. Pears are good. Pears mean food. She's more interested in food than a lot of things here and though she isn't much of a farmer or a gardener, she isn't about to let this one go without at least trying it. So, even though she also doesn't have a basket or anything to carry a lot of them back, she decides she'll at least pick one to try. If they're ripe, she'll come back for more later.

Reaching up, she chooses the one that looks the best, twisting her hand once she's grasped it and tugging until the pear comes free. What she doesn't expect is for the thing to vanish. One of her eyebrows arches and she turns her hand over. No sign of the pear at all can be seen on her hand.

Case of the vanishing peach, is what she wants to say. Except nothing comes out. She mouths the words, but no sound can be heard. It's like the air won't even push through her throat right. She tries again. Same result. Now her expression morphs into something like irritation. She can't even make terrible puns to cope without her voice!

This better not be permanent.

Deciding to avoid any other peaches that might be skulking around, she heads out of the forest and back towards the village. Her first stop is the Inn, where she looks for something to eat just in case it's some sort of illness that just needs a good bowl of soup. When that doesn't seem to do the trick, she leaves for the hospital. Eventually, she wanders around the village, looking grumpy and put out, and ends up back at the house she's sharing with Fenris. It's easier just to be there than anything else.

With her luck, this will be permanent and she's certainly going to sulk and complain for as long as it lasts.

Comments

Inn

[scepterschild]

Wanda continued on with her days as normal. Earlier in the week Clint had gotten bunny ears but it had only lasted for an hour. Given the other strange things that happen in the village, it wasn't really so bad. He appeared healthy and it had past. She wondered if something similar would happen to others-- vanishing fruit --but she gave no attention to it. It wouldn't last forever and as long as they were careful they wouldn't end up with bunny ears. She hadn't realized the affects might vary.

When Hawke walked into the inn Wanda waved. It was one of the few people that Wanda spoke too on a semi-regular bases and while she didn't trust the girl completely, she was a nice distraction from the craziness of their cage.

Wanda was finishing up her work in the kitchen when she turned towards Hawke. There was a towel in her hand as she finished cleaning up after her work. "How are you today?"

Forest

[super_seal]

Steve had been mostly on his own scouting around the canyon wall and the forest in the nearby vicinity of it since he arrived. It wasn't that he was anti-social, but he wanted to get the hell out of dodge and making friends and getting accustomed to whatever this was supposed to be wasn't going to help with that. Now though he'd scouted out all of this side of the canyon and they were in fact sealed in except for the small passage to secondary village. The water on that side certainly had his attention and he hoped would be a way to escape but he'd noted the weather starting to change. Living in the woods would soon become more problematic than integrating himself into those already here.

Walking back to the main village, Steve first hears then sees Hawke come out of the forest to the left of him. He stops and waits for her to come close enough, when she does he sees that she's not happy. "Is everything okay?"

Forest

[elderflowermacarons]

Taako's in a perfectly chipper mood, which is to say, the usual attitude of hyperactive unconcern that he adopts whenever he can't do a damn thing about his situation, so might as well roll with it. His constant wandering seems to have led him to another stranger, which is one of the things wandering is supposed to do. There are too few people here to go around without even a basic read on any of them. He waves with the hand that's not toting his latest catch of fish around. "Hail and well met and all that shit." He's yet to stumble across a better way to greet a potentially useful person than Maggie's old go-to. Either they eat that crap up, they're confused and/or cynical, or they immediately demonstrate how not-well this meeting is gonna go and you can work from there. He can deal with all those options.

[not_a_slave]

"Hello, Hawke," Fenris says when he hears the door close, followed by the approach of footsteps.

It's a friendly greeting, more so than he'd generally give to anyone other than Hawke, whom he still considers something like a hostess here since she'd been here before he arrived. More than that, though, she's his friend and companion and the one person he's genuinely sure looks out for him for its own sake.

It's only when he turns that he sees the look on her face: scowling and sulky, like she'd been out on a tiresome errand she had to do for someone she didn't particularly like back in Kirkwall.

"What happened?" he asks, well aware that she can look out for herself, but also aware that he's her ally and companion here, with all the obligation that carries.