(no subject)

[ataashihunter]

WHO: The Iron Bull and Open
WHERE: Fountain and Inn
WHEN: July 16th
OPEN TO: OTA. Please only one person for the fountain, then everyone for the inn
WARNINGS: Flirting, swearing, spoilers for Dragon Age Inquisition/Trespasser

---

Fountain Early Morning July 16th

It had been a day. A few days really. He had had had a bad feeling when they had gone to the Darvaarad. He knew they would be meeting other Ben-Hassrath but not that he would be offered a place back with the Qunari. Not that it had been a choice. The Qunari had tossed him aside, put a bounty on his head and tried to kill him. Fair enough that he had broken one of their core tenants but that sort of treatment wasn't going to have him coming back like a loyal dog. That didn't mean he was all happy now, there was an uneasiness in his guts that he decided to settle with booze and lots of it.

He isn't sure how long he'd been out when cold water wakes him roughly. Cold water all around him, crushing against him. He has to fight the urge to gasp for air as he opens his eyes and sees that he is underwater, there is a faint light above him and he swims for it instinctively. The horns make swimming hard for Qunari but now he is functioning more on instinct than anything else. He breaks the surface at the same time as a mighty lighting cracks overhead and for a second he can see the walls of the fountain clearly as well as the village around it. He makes for the edge of the fountain and the thunder hides his grunts as he manages to pull himself out.

He needs a few moments to catch himself, laying on the cold wet but thankfully solid ground, coughing up water and thanking the stars he is alive. Then he laughs, adrenaline making him giddy for having survived that.

Inn Evening July 16th

After getting inside the inn, getting dried off and out of his wet clothes (how did they manage to get scrubs over his horns?) and a bit of a nap to sleep of the worst of the hangover he staggers downstairs to find out what kind of place this is and what sort of people are here. He isn't wearing a shirt because he isn't going to fight those again, but pants and boots. He looks around the inn and finally settles by the fire, talking to anyone who seems interested in a chat.

Comments

[ex_assertiveness90]

Stella's just on her way back from a quick walk around the village — for exercise, but also she's still assessing the damage from the earthquake — when the storms start up again. It's not even kind enough to start with a tiny sprinkling of rain that builds up into something more substantial; no, one second there's nothing and the next, a downpour. Swearing, she manages to duck into the inn, but not before the rain's soaked her hair, her blouse and her cotton trousers. At least she had the good sense to wear boots.

She spends a minute wringing her hair out, then tucks it into a loose knot — it won't stay without an elastic or anything to hold it in place, but it keeps her wet hair out of her face for now. At the same time, she's scanning the faces in the inn common room, recognizing a few familiar ones—

—and one not so familiar. Now, Stella has been in the village long enough that she's seen a few unusual things — and especially since they all came through the fountain the second time and a few people ended up looking, or being, not quite as human as they first appeared. Combine that with the strange powers they've all experienced off and on here, and the alien flora and fauna, and things here are quite a lot more complicated than what she'd been used to at home.

She can almost take it in stride now. Tall — extremely tall — built, one-eyed man. Grey skin. Horns.

Right.

"Have you just got here?" she asks, as she approaches the fire in an attempt to dry herself out. She's assuming the answer is yes. Surely Stella, with her trained observational skills, would have noticed an enormous horned man before. Surely.

[ataashihunter]

He grins a little when he spots someone trying to take it all in. Not someone used to Qunari, that is for sure. Then again he is pretty sure that most people aren't. He motions to one of the other seats near the fire. "This morning. It's still raining bad, isn't it? Or did you go for a swim in the fountain too?"

[ex_assertiveness90]

It's hardly as if Stella has much experience with non-humans, being from somewhere where the idea of non-human sentient life was mostly confined to science fiction. Living here, especially in the last few months, has — well, it's certainly broadened her metaphorical horizons.

"It's been raining like this all month," she says, "and you've just missed the earthquakes. I suppose the observers thought we needed a bit more excitement."

Stella unwinds her hair eventually, carding her fingers through it, looking over at the man speculatively. She's interested in him — she just hasn't yet decided how much, or in what way.

"Stella Gibson," she introduces herself, holding out a hand, intensely conscious in that moment of how much larger he is than she. Not that she feels threatened; she's actually quite calm, in control. "Has someone told you what to expect here?"

[ataashihunter]

"The Observers?" He raises his eyebrow and then takes her hand and shakes it and grins. "The Iron Bull. And no nobody has." He sits back in a chair and glances around. "I can make a few guesses. People from different places are brought together. Very different places if I am to guess by the way people are looking at me. We're more or less stuck here and there seems to be some sort of sorting system based on colour."

[ex_assertiveness90]

"The Iron Bull? Is that a title?"

It's mostly a rhetorical question; she doesn't expect to receive an answer she understands. He's picked up on a lot, for someone who just got here, and she adds that to the mental list of notes she's already making on him; he's observant, pays attention to his surroundings.

"The observers are the people keeping us here — or we've assumed they're people; we've never actually seen them. As far as anyone can tell, this is all some sort of experiment for their personal amusement," she says with obvious distaste. Stella is a lot of things, but someone's toy isn't one of them.

"As for the clothing, we've yet to figure out precisely what the colors mean or why each of us arrived here wearing the colors we did." There seem to be some commonalities, and perhaps certain traits or powers associated with each color, but they've so little data in that regard that Stella isn't comfortable making assumptions.

[ataashihunter]

"Yeah, Qunari doesn't have names, we have ... well, job descriptions. I chose The Iron Bull when I moved to Orlais." It might clarify things, it might not. He nods as he talks. Being a tool for someone's amusement... Well, he's been a mercenary dealing with nobles for long enough that that isn't so strange any more. Which might be sadder than anything else.


"Any chance of changing the colour? What happens if you switch clothes with someone else?"

[ex_assertiveness90]

She gathers 'Qunari' is an organization or an ethnic group, and 'Orlais' (sounds French, doesn't it) is a place, but that's about it.

"I'm not sure that anyone's tried — but there are quite a lot of people here who have different clothing than what they arrived in, and it hasn't seemed to matter." She herself, quite obviously, is not wearing scrubs, but dark blue trousers and a light blue button-down blouse. Her scrubs are blue, it's true, but she has other garments that aren't, and it hasn't seemed to make any difference to anything.

"I suspect it's less the clothes themselves and more some quality that's intrinsic to each of us —" She pauses briefly, a verbal shrug. "Again, we haven't enough information, which is unfortunately a permanent problem here. We're told only what they want us to know, it seems."

Inn

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny had seen a lot over the course of his life but never once as he seen anyone like Ironbull. His eyes followed the giant as he took a seat next to the fire and Danny wondered how the hell he had managed to navigate doors with those horns on his head.

"You're new." So smooth Danny. "I'm pretty sure I would have remembered seeing you before."

"Hi. I'm Danny." He ran his palm along the dark green of his scrubs before offering his hand to the small giant sitting in front of the fire.

Re: Inn

[ataashihunter]

Practice, a lot of practice is how the Bull manages to make his way around human-sized dwellings. He hopes there are some other buildings that are built for someone more his size though. At worst he'll take a barn. But for now, he is just happy to be dry and alive. When the guy wipes his hand on the same color scrubs he has and then offers it he shakes his with a grin. "How much would you hate me if I said I'd always been here." He chuckles. "I am The Iron Bull, I arrived this morning."

Re: Inn

[theimmortalweapon]

"A lot." Danny replied with a boyish grin.

He grabbed one of the chairs and pulled it next to the fire and took a seat on it. Danny would have sat on the floor but he didn't want to crane his neck through the entirety of the conversation. Not that Danny was particularly short, he reached six feet tall but the Ironbull had at least another foot on top of that.

His brows furrowed curiously together. "Is that a title or a name?" It sounded very similar to the Ironfist which was a title that Danny had earned through trial. Danny Rand was his name though at some points they felt like two distinctive people with roles that he stumbled to fulfill.

Re: Inn

[ataashihunter]

"A title. Qunari doesn't have names, we are given a job description." He shrugs, smiling at the guy sitting down. That grin really suits him if you ask Bull. "I chose The Iron Bull when I moved to Orlais. It's powerful and it enhances the idea that I am a weapon. Handy when you're a mercenary"

Inn

[theimmortalweapon]

"Oh, so you're a Qunari." The word sounded a little awkward when Danny said it but he gets points for effort. "I have a name and a title." Which he used interchangeably. "I'm Danny Rand and, that's honestly how I usually introduce myself." His hand brushed against the back of his head as he continued. "My title is for work . . . in a way."

He wasn't sure how to explain the distinction. He probably shouldn't be using his birth name, he was the Ironfist, but Danny Rand wasn't dead, not really.

Re: Inn

[ataashihunter]

"I was a Qunari. Now I am Tal Vashoth. It's complicated. To be Qunari you have to be well... this.." He gestures to himself. " and follow the Qun. We have a different word for elves or humans who follow the Qun. And Qunari who leave the Qun become Tal Vashoth. Those that never followed the Qun are simply Vashoth." He is waiting for Danny's eyes to glaze over. Many people find this complicated.

"Most humans do introduce themselves with names yeah. You're raised differently."

Inn

[reprobate]

Well, that's new.

Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, Sirius openly stares across the room to the clearly non-human, shirtless, horned man lounging by the fire as if that were all perfectly normal.

Then again, perhaps for this bloke it is.

Sirius plucks the cigarette from his lips and wanders closer, canting his head, focus still fixed. "Those have got to be a pain in the arse around here," he says, motioning to the horns with the cigarette poised between his fingers. "Did you come in shirtless?"

Re: Inn

[ataashihunter]

Well, lounging by the fire is one of the Bull's favourite past times. If he could have a beer or some Qunari cocoa it would be even better. He notices the guy staring from half the room away, you don't survive to be a spy as long as Bull has without noticing things like that. But he doesn't do anything.

"Nah, somehow they'd gotten one of those shirts on me, same colour as this." He motions to the dark green pants. "Had to cut it to get it off. It's a Qunari thing. Shirts are a challenge."

[reprobate]

"I could see how that could be a problem," Sirius agrees with a nod, and then sits in the adjacent chair without asking, lounging back and then leaning over to get a better look at the bloke from feet to horns.

"Buttons," he adds, pointing again with the unlit cigarette as he settles properly back in the chair. "That's your answer."

[ataashihunter]

"Or just no shirt. I don't do all this work not to show off you know." Bull shrugs. Going shirtless is his prefered method anyway. He grins as the guy looks him over. He is missing his harness and armour as well as the foot brace, but at least he has an eyepatch. "So does this place have any good ale?"

[reprobate]

It's quite a lot to show off, Sirius does have to admit, although working on his own physique has always seemed an absurd idea, even after all those years of James trying to drag him along on runs and laps around the Quidditch pitch. He's skinny, nothing so impressive as this bloke, but he reckons he looks all right.

"Not a drop, to my constant dismay," he answers of the ale with a slow shake of his head. "Got a big box of smokes my second day in, but apparently libations are too much to ask for."

[ataashihunter]

"Yeah? Huh. Maybe we can make some. Some honey or apples and we can make something pretty decent." He has never tried to brew mead or cider before but he has had the way it is done described to him.

Fountain

[super_seal]

When he's in town, Steve made a point of checking the fountain. It had started in the early winter, driven by concerns of the surface freezing over, trapping newcomers underneath. Now he rationalizes it as a precautionary necessity. Anything could hamper the opening in the well - regardless of the season. He'd witnessed the struggle the animals had to escape their arrival, being one of those who helped pull them out of the water, he's aware of the bitter truth of what would happen if no one would have been around to help. Now with the storm, debris could easily get in the way. It's why, even with a storm in progress, he's heading out there now.

He's in time to witness the horns breach the water's surface, illuminated by the lightning. That sight has him stopping in his tracks. His first thought, if more animals are coming through, he's going to need help and equipment and he silently curses the observers for sending them through now. What he sees next however has him stationary for a whole different reason. The... creature moves to the edge and pulls himself out. On his own. And while there are horns on it's head, it's wearing scrubs. Green ones. Not human but evolved enough to be trapped here too?

It's the coughing that gets Steve moving again, only to slow once more to a stop as it starts to laugh. A safe couple feet away, he bites on his lower lip a moment as he tilts his head.

"Something funny?"

[ataashihunter]

Bull isn't even aware that someone is approaching, which he usually is. He jumps a little when he hears a voice but blinks as he looks up at him. Then he moves to sit up. While he is pretty sure he can take the guy down should it come to a fight it is clear enough that it won't be easy. Instead, he gives the guy a wide smile and motions to the fountain with a hand. "Just happy to survive nearly drowning."

[super_seal]

It takes Steve a moment. While the creature in front of him looks very different from anything he's ever seen before, the mannerisms and facial expressions are very familiar. Hearing English clearly spoken is also a bit surprising, but the similarities out-weigh the differences and Steve's stepping forward and offering Bull a hand up.

"Quite the way to arrive, isn't it? We all came in that way." He tilts his head slightly and offers an apologetic shrug. "You likely won't be so relieved to find out your trapped here."

[ataashihunter]

Bull reaches to take the hand but he is careful not to put too much weight on it when he pulls himself up. He looks down at the wet clothes sticking to him and then shakes his head. "Yeah. It makes an impression." Then he frowns at the next bit, looking around. "What do you mean trapped? I don't see a fence." That doesn't mean there isn't one. As simple of a thing as it being an island would be enough to trap people. "Who is keeping us here?"

[super_seal]

"We used to have cliff walls, but that was in the simulation." With a quick look around, he brings his eyes back to the strange newcomer. "Now it's forest with some unique vegetation and wildlife. I'm not sure if we've made it around the perimeter completely yet, but it appears we're on an island as well. As for who's keeping us here..." Voice trailing off, he shrugs. "We call them the Observers but they don't interact with us and no one has any memory of them. We arrive like you did, dressed in various colors of scrubs and now we have these things," he holds up his wrist with his magenta communication device on it, "that we can use to communicate with, but only with each other."

There's more, so much more, but he pauses to allow Bull the chance to absorb and ask questions before he continues.

[ataashihunter]

"The simulation?" Bull frowns. He's never heard that word before. Not as a noun at least. He glances around at this supposed unique vegetation. Not that he is seeing that much of it in the darkness. Then he turns back to Steve. Then he looks at the device on his wrist, then down to the one on his own wrist. "What are these? How do they work?"