audio;

[cockade]

[Was the Moira in need of a Frenchman throwing possible sass around today? No? Too bad. That is to say that Arno here has a question, and it's one that's been bugging him for quite some time now. Two years, to be exact.]

I have a question for you all, provided we're past the whole drama spectacle that's taken the ship by storm recently. [Said in a humorous tone, and he continues.] How many of you have been mistaken as coming from somewhere else?

For example, I come from Paris, France. However, in meeting other people from other universes, [And boy, that still sounds weird, even though it's a familiar concept to him now] I've been asked or even assumed that I'm from a place called Orlais, which resides in Thedas. I'd suspect it's mostly because of my accent and that I speak a similar language to those of the Orlesians- but I've never been to Orlais or even heard of it, save for my time before being taken here.

I suppose I'm asking out of curiosity. [That and him being asked so many times where he resides in Orlais. It gets old and really annoying after a while.] I can't be the only one who's had this, either here or back home.

Comments

[chipouttaluck]

Yeah, it's got these blades that whirl around. [She does a little demonstration with her hands.] Think they cut through where the air used to be and that's how you get up.

[cockade]

...I still don't see how it works. [Then again, he's no scientist.] I'll have to take your word for it.

But if you have these "ghouls" and these "super mutants" and "radiation" all around, what exactly is your world like, then?

[chipouttaluck]

Dunno. [Never really thought about it before. There's a lot of pauses over the next few lines. She's gotta speak for her whole world, after all.] Kinda fucked up. Maybe like the world ended, back when the bombs fell, and we're just scrounging over what's left. [Sounds like a downer that way, huh?] But we're still alive out here, so that's gotta count for something. Just gotta keep movin' forward, see where it goes, don't look back so much. Make something new with what we've got left.

[Wow, she just had a Courier moment. Savour it, these don't happen too often.] And try not to get shot and die. [Yep, there we go.]

[cockade]

[Arno whistles at the information, taking a long moment to process it. He'd been told there are worlds like the one Surely lives in, but to actually meet someone who comes from one and be told the bleakness of it- it's both shocking and saddening at the same time. He couldn't imagine living a life like that.

It takes a few moments, but when he speaks, it's perhaps firm, but nothing inappropriate.] Back home, in Paris- we're in the middle of a revolution with our own people. Every day, familiar and unfamiliar faces are led to squares and executed publicly, more often than not by guillotine. [A pause as he realizes that she may not know what that is.] They're beheaded by a large blade that falls on the neck, to put it plainly. But they are used as examples, and there are riots in the streets when there isn't a full blown war being flung at noble manors.

We both come from hard times, but you have my respect and admiration for carrying yourself through it, mademoiselle. Not many could, in your position.

[chipouttaluck]

How large are we talkin'? [She's picturing like a vertibird blade. Knew somebody with a sword like that back home. She shakes her head a bit, though. Joke time's over, she figures.]

Lotta folks end up dying out there. I ain't one of them, and I figure neither are you.

[cockade]

Large enough to amputate any part of the body, if necessary. [No one can lift a thing like that back home, it's impossible.

There's the sound of acknowledgement on Arno's end, and he breathes through his mouth in a way to try not to smile too wide.]

I've had close moments, as I'm sure you have as well, but I'm still alive for a reason. I don't plan on anything like that happening for a long time.