001 drop of lyrium || [video] + action

[arlathansgrace]

Oh! Andaran atish’an! This is such an interesting way to talk to people, don't you think? I can see your face and you can see mine! It's like a mirror, but it reflects other people back at you.

[Merrill waves, smiling broadly, her large eyes sparkling with delight.]

My name is Merrill, and I'm looking for my friends. I appear to be a little lost. [She swings the tablet around too fast to really see anything useful. Just a lot of stone.] Did you see that? I'm lost. But I have friends who can help me become, ah, not lost.

Sometimes, when I was lost in Kirkwall, Isabela - she's one of my friends - would swoop down from the top of a building and tell me where to go. She's very pretty, with dark hair and a lovely blue bandana. Oh, and a necklace. It's quite hard to miss her necklace and what's below it. And there's Aveline, but sometimes I worry she doesn't like me. She has red hair, like the sun, and quite a lot of freckles. I like her freckles. I wish I had freckles... [Merrill trails off, tapping her fingers against her cheeks as if counting freckles. She comes back to herself suddenly.] I'm sorry, I tend to get lost in my thoughts. I think that's how I ended up here. Do you ever do that? You start thinking and then you just don't come out. What was I saying before?

Oh, yes, my friends! I have quite a few of them. Isabela and Aveline and Varric! Varric is a dwarf, and he's very funny, but his stories aren't always true. He tells me stories about pirates, but Isabela says they're mostly made up. And Fenris, he's elvhen, like me, but--that's not going to be trouble, is it? In Kirkwall, they make us live in alienages, and they're very dirty. I had a nice house, but it was very small. No one in Thedas seems to like the elvhen very much, and living in the alienage is very uncomfortable...

[She stares past the tablet screen for a moment, thoughtful.] I hope there aren't any alienages here...

If you know my friends, would you tell them I'm looking for them? Ma serannas for your troubles. Or, if you recognize this place-- [She ducks out of the frame, an alleyway filling the screen for a few seconds before she fumbles the tablet and then drops it. Merrill's face pops into the frame again, a worried expression on it.] Oh, dear, I hope I haven't broken you...

[ooc: Feel free to engage the very lost Merrill in actiony posts. As a Dalish elf, she tends to speak in the elvhen language frequently. You can hover over the text with your mouse to get a translation!]

Comments

[inafadingcrown]

[Lord, Merrill. It's a good thing she's used to be flattered.]

We have scarcely met and already you do me such great honor.

[arlathansgrace]

You seem very honorable. It's not something you find a lot of, you know. Thieving, lying, general mayhem and terrible... ness... you find a lot of that. It's why we like Hawke so much. Even when he's blunt and straightforward, he's honorable.

[inafadingcrown]

That which is rare is valued all the more highly when it is found. [BRB, adding "Hawke" to her mental list of people to talk to.]

But we have strayed far from the most pressing topic. Are you still lost, my young friend?

[arlathansgrace]

[She holds up a ball of twine.]

Not anymore! Varric found me. We're going back to the-- um. Apartments?

[inafadingcrown]

[Okay, she doesn't get the relevance of the ball of twine, but she's relieved.]

I am glad. It is fortunate you have friends here already.

[arlathansgrace]

And a few more. There's another elf here who looks like you. Is he your friend, too?

[inafadingcrown]

[A male elf who looks like her... She's going to leap to the wrong conclusion because she doesn't think Elrond looks like her. Not blood related at all, you know.]

The Lord Maehdros is my cousin, if that is with whom you spoke.

[arlathansgrace]

I don't know his name. But he has the same ears. [She pinches the tips of hers.] And an inset bridge, like a human. Aside from the ears, you both look very human. Are you tall, too?

[inafadingcrown]

If the resemblance is as simple as that, it might be Lord Elrond also.

[The question gets a little laugh.] I am taller than most Elven women, in truth. [So she's not one to judge by, really.] But, as a rule, the Eldar are greater in height than humans, yes.

[arlathansgrace]

[Boggled staring ensues.]

Taller? Really?

[inafadingcrown]

Truly. It is not so with you, then?

[arlathansgrace]

Oh, no, we're much shorter. Thinner, too. Humans are stronger, but the elvhenan know more magic.

[The forbidden sort. Her glance to the side is a bit telling.]

[inafadingcrown]

[She caught that glance, but chooses not to comment on it.]

Mortals are wont to speak of "elf magic" where I am from, but I confess I do not wholly like the term. What we wield is different from the gifts of the Istari and vastly different from the deceits of the Enemy.

[arlathansgrace]

[She opens her mouth.

Closes it.

Tries again.]

Istari? Is that a-- is that a demon? From the Fade?

[inafadingcrown]

[You keep startling her, Merril. This is hard to do, so congratulations.]

No. [She doesn't know that the Fade is, but oh Lord.] Forgive me, you would not know. It simply means "wise ones" in the tongue of my people. "Wizards" is the more common term.