If you cannot teach me to fly . . .

[freedom_is_grey]

It only takes Dave ten minutes to pull Ysalwen away from the siren call of maps and ancient scrolls.

Then she and Liranan decide to show him their favorite places in Milliways.

One location to begin from is the tropical inlet. Because the water and the sand there are warm, and it's very much unlike anywhere else that Ysalwen has ever been.

Comments

[freedom_is_grey]

"Dogs are terrible at giving hugs. Receiving they can do, but giving -- he does the best he can."

Ysalwen is just saying.

Then she pauses, frowning slightly.

"Are you having memory problems, Dave?"

Thedas has zero Shakespeare.

[stridersgonnastride]

"what

"what is it i have been known to be a forgetful fucker but i don't remember anything i am currently forgetting. don't have any chores here i'm even wearing all the clothes required by polite society even though when they say no shirt no shoes no service they also actually mean pants too"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Thank you for keeping all your bits covered," Ysalwen allows, after a moment.

"I appreciate it."

She really, really does.

"But now, the real question. Who is MacDuff?"

[stridersgonnastride]

"oh," he says relaxing back into a slouch. "fake dead english guy

"i mean he is a character in a play i guess but if he was real he would be dead because it's from a long-ass time ago."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Yes, but why did you refer to him here?"

If that yes makes it sound like she had some idea that MacDuff was a fake person --

She didn't mean it that way.

"Did he die by infected spider-bite?"

[stridersgonnastride]

Dave lifts up off the ground so he can float backwards in front of Ysalwen and point accusingly at her at the same time. "you promised me no spiders"

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen widens her eyes dramatically.

"And so far there have been none! But I couldn't think of why else you might have called me by the name of a dead fake person."

What?

[stridersgonnastride]

"it's a saying

"it's a thing you say when

"uh

"you want someone to lead the way for some really goddamn urgent reason. look i don't remember that one very well okay almost everyone was evil and then they all died"

'Everyone was evil and then they all died'- Cherub Shakespeare probably.

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen laughs, quick and dry.

"Sounds like home. All right, then. I suppose I can be convinced to lead on. Would you like the mountains next, or the edges of the forest?"

[stridersgonnastride]

"woods if there are spiders lets get it the fuck over with

"you have a lot of tragic classic plays back home romeo and julielf

"alas poor yorelf" Here Dave pulls a weird skull out of his sylladex to mime the Hamlet scene. "i knew him well"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Plays, ballads, poems -- real life events, as well, though history is always a little -- "

How does one put it?

" -- flexible in interpretation. Speaking of flexible -- if we wander deeper into the forest than you did, things will start becoming -- strange. I'll keep an eye out if you will."

Skulls as stepping-stones, spiderwebs strung between trees, blasted lands crawling with faint silver lines . . .

Come see Thedas, they said.

[stridersgonnastride]

"poems huh

"if you've got any appropriately epic slam poetry you should share. keep the love poems unless they've got a good beat but i like hearing how other people jam.

"strange like how. dangerous strange?"

The skull vanishes, leaving his hands open for quickdraw purposes.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Strange like uncanny, more like. I went with a friend last time -- Bahorel -- and there were a lot of skulls replacing rocks. Very dramatic, not particularly dangerous. We don't have to go in that deeply if you don't prefer. It's easy enough to stay on the edges."

Her mouth twists at one corner.

"As for, um, epic slam poetry -- I know either depressing songs of mourning, ballads, or rollicking tavern songs. There's one about a mabari, and I can sing it as we walk if you like."

What?

[stridersgonnastride]

"skulls are okay if they're not human skulls

"or elf skulls

"sentient fucking species skulls you know what i mean. you can skip the songs of mourning while we're in a creepy fucking forest thanks. rollicking sounds good hit me with one of those why don't you"

Is it called 'Who Let the Mabari Out'?

[freedom_is_grey]

It's 'Andraste's Mabari', actually.

Self-chosen immolation is what happens to the dog.

Thedas is a cheerful place!

"I don't know if the skulls really belonged to anyone or if they were . . . . figments of someone's imagination? Is that a thing?"

[stridersgonnastride]

"probably some kind of metaphor

"contemplate your own mortality or lack thereof while walking through the woods. ashes to ashes all returns to nature in the end

"it's the circle of life everything the light touches is our kingdom simba

"and then your uncle betrays you

"wait that was hamlet not macbeth fuck"

The woods are actually quite nice today. Sun-dappled leaves, chirping birds, etc. Dave clambers over a rock, his determination to fly everywhere already forgotten in favor of being king of the mountain.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Unless you get eaten by darkspawn."

Or, you know. Turned into a Broodmother.

Right. That's enough of that.

Time to start singing. She hops up on the rock next to Dave as she does so, then down the other side.

Some people make wandering in the wilderness look easy. (At least she is not being heralded by a chorus of singing little birds?)

[stridersgonnastride]

Ysalwen has a nice voice. But!

"the dog dies?? that is not a rollicking bar song you lying liar

"that is old yeller in goddamn verse"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Well, she didn't go alone into that good night," Ysalwen says, mouth quirking at one corner as she drops her hand to ruffle Liranan's ears.

"And the Chantry is Orlesian, and Orlais hates Ferelden, and Fereldans love dogs, so it's -- a backwards sort of fuck you to the Chantry, honestly. In disguise."

[stridersgonnastride]

"this is my dubious face," Dave says, pointing at indeed, his face. However, he's still wearing his usual deadpan expression.

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen studies him in earnest for several long moments.

"Ah, I see. It's something in the tilt of the eyebrows."

A quick flash of a smile.

"I'll remember that for next time."

Maybe he'll enjoy a rousing chorus of Ballad of the Murderer's Gold instead.

[stridersgonnastride]

"jesus," Dave says, ducking under a low hanging branch.

"do you have nothing but songs about murder in major key

"oh wait you said mournful ballads so you also have songs about murder in minor key fucking incredible"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Does the minor key make you more comfortable? I can work with that."

And so she launches into The Ballad of Ayesleigh.

[stridersgonnastride]

"oh my god why. stop. the crowd goes wild with despair and commits mass suicide"

Dave claps his hands over his ears and starts singing his own song.

Okay, 'song' is generous. So is 'singing'. There is a reason he exclusively raps.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Okay, wait no, stop."

Ysa herself has stopped walking. Liranan, too.

"Teach me that one."

Oh. Um.

"Please."