[oom] Denerim

[bringspeopletogether]

For the most part, Alistair's kept the little Trollian device secreted away in a locked chest. Before he hid it, he tested it to confirm it still worked inside the palace, fiddling with the buttons some more until he stopped turning it off whenever he meant to send a message. (Someone, somewhere, probably got very sick of seeing quondamGryphon sign on and off for thirty minutes straight.)

After that, his nightly routine gains a few extra steps: go to his room, lock the door, unlock the chest, blow out any candles, and curl up in his bed with the device in hand. Most nights, he doesn't send any messages; all he does is watch the flicker of names appearing and disappearing, the screen's soft glow providing the room's only illumination.

It doesn't feel so lonely when he does that. Just knowing he can talk to someone -- even if he doesn't end up pressing a single button the whole night -- eases a little of the pressure in his chest.

The instructions mentioned the device is a quasi-living thing. Maybe that's why the changes start: living things grow. All Alistair knows is sometime around the second week of his new routine, he pulls out the device, feels a smooth lump on its back that wasn't there before, and, with a frown, turns it over to investigate.

It looks a bit like the clear bubble holding the device's "food." It's smaller, though; it doesn't squish when Alistair prods it with a fingernail. It feels like a pearl, almost, embedded into the device's shell like a jewel stuck in a crown.

And there's a new button on the front when he flips it back over: red, printed with a circle inside a rectangle. Frown deepening, Alistair presses it.

The screen turns to glass.

Or that's what it looks like, anyway. All of a sudden, Alistair can see his knees, the floor, a bit of the chest -- hastily, swearing under his breath, he stabs the button again in the hope it'll undo whatever he just did. It doesn't. Instead, the image of his knees freezes in place, and a message pops up over top of it.

SAVE IMAGE? Y/N




What.

y, types Alistair after a long moment's pause.

NAME IMAGE: ______.jpg

...y?, types Alistair again.

IMAGE SAVED: y?.jpg




"All right, what in Andraste's name just happened," he mutters as he stares at the screen. Gingerly, he positions his finger above the new button, raises the device, and presses it again.

Click.

Huh.

Click. Click.

All right, whatever this is, it's...kind of fun.

Click-click-click --

Actually, it's downright remarkable, look what it's doing, it's -- it's painting little pictures --



CURRENT quondamGryphon [CQG] has invited amaranthineIdeopraxist to join private transtimeline bulletin board THEDAS

CURRENT quondamGryphon [CQG] has invited jackbootJudex to join private transtimeline bulletin board THEDAS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CURRENT quondamGryphon [CQG] RIGHT NOW opened memo on board THEDAS

CURRENT quondamGryphon [CQG] sent file "alistair.jpg"

(The file, when opened, has the honor of being Thedas's very first selfie: Alistair beaming uncontrollably, the image a little askew due to the awkwardness of taking a photo sight unseen.)

CQG: YSA
CQG: CULLEN
CQG: LOOK WHAT I FOUND
CQG: IT'S ON THE TROLLIAN DEVICE

It seems that in addition to finding the camera his device grew overnight, Alistair has also located the capslock button.

Comments

[howtoactfereldan]

In Kirkwall, a mirror or two over, Cullen is sitting up in bed. A long rectangle of sunlight spills over his legs. To be more precise, a long rectangle of sunlight spills over the gray mabari stretched out on Cullen's legs in such a way as to take the most advantage of said sunlight.

Cullen himself is browsing the book, which here means looking at the list of film titles Karkat provided and flagging ones with interesting-looking titles. (He has already indeed watched Con Air. Some of it was fine; the weapons were... a lot... and the skycraft was -- overwhelming. He has made a note to watch it again later once he figures out some other things.) But there: a T-minus notification to join a... something. It says Thedas? And that's not Ysa, so --



...that certainly lacks the majesty of a royal portrait. (Heh.) On the other hand, it's better than most monarch's profiles look on any given gold sovereign.

(Cullen smirks.)

CURRENT jackbootJudex [CJJ] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.

CJJ: Congratulations on recognizing your own face.

[freedom_is_grey]

In Amaranthine -- for now -- Ysalwen settles down in her bed, Zevran leaning comfortably against her shoulder, Liranan taking his usual position of sprawling over both their feet.

It keeps them warm, okay?

"You," she says to Zevran, voice sharp but expression affectionate. "Stop that. I'm working."

He does stop that. Eventually. And then, of course, he starts weaving tiny braids into her hair.

While that happens, Ysalwen pops up one or two holographic displays, one of which happens to be a T-Minus window. With a message in it. A bulletin board invite? That's -- new. Huh.

And once she's joined --

Huh, indeed.

CURRENT amaranthineIdeopraxist [AI] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.

CAI: Well, that's certainly something to see before bed. How did you do it? Also why did you do it? I already know what your face looks like.