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Annie is on her trike on her way to school.
This van labeled HAZARDOUS MATERIALS is also on its way to school.
The van hits a patch of black ice. It goes spinning, it turns over, it slices itself open on a wrought-iron fence with spikes, and it disgorges boxes which smash open on the pavement. Some of them skitter clear into the slush.
Some of them - along with most of the van - land on Annie.
There is a whirl of bewildering pain and confusion -
- and she falls to the ground, injured and in more kinds of discomfort beyond that and moaning.
She slowly starts to heal before the eyes of her sole witness.
six artifact pileup annie in thedas
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keep_busy
first-and-final
He smiles at her for a moment, but then the smile fades into a pensive expression.
"I... I think it's a fundamental injustice that you were made to fall magically in love with me without your agreement. I wish I could have met you before all this magic nonsense happened to you, somehow, because I'm beginning to suspect we would've gotten along very well, but it's harder to sort out my genuine feelings under this kind of pressure - and - the magnitude of the solution required, even if I managed to fall in love with you...! I have other responsibilities, I can't abandon Orzammar, a low-risk lifestyle just isn't an option, I'd have to survive everything the darkspawn can throw at me and then become immortal anyway because old age still exists. Not that I object, but it's a little daunting."
"I... I think it's a fundamental injustice that you were made to fall magically in love with me without your agreement. I wish I could have met you before all this magic nonsense happened to you, somehow, because I'm beginning to suspect we would've gotten along very well, but it's harder to sort out my genuine feelings under this kind of pressure - and - the magnitude of the solution required, even if I managed to fall in love with you...! I have other responsibilities, I can't abandon Orzammar, a low-risk lifestyle just isn't an option, I'd have to survive everything the darkspawn can throw at me and then become immortal anyway because old age still exists. Not that I object, but it's a little daunting."
keep_busy
"The pressure is a problem and I'm really sorry but I - figured not telling you would be worse. I'm not nearly a good enough actor anyway. ...Um, I'm probably not immortal, regeneration or no."
first-and-final
"Yes, but - I mean, I can't just decide I'm not going to die until you do and then carry that out by pure application of will, so becoming immortal is the only way to actually be sure I don't die until you do. Of course, then I have the problem that I don't want you or anyone else to die either, so I suppose what I really need to do is make everyone immortal." He reflects on this for a moment. "The world is going to start getting really unbearably crowded in a few hundred years. Well, one thing at a time."
keep_busy
"I'm totally on board with making everyone immortal, sounds good, do you suppose it's an advantage that runes count as a language or are they all definitely known or what."
first-and-final
"I don't know, you'll have to talk to Caridin. And don't let my confident manner fool you into thinking I have any idea how I'm going to do this, because I certainly don't. I'm just not inclined to let that stop me."
first-and-final
"Maybe I've been going about this all wrong... the trying to figure out if I can fall in love with you, I mean. I assumed that I'd be back to normal once I straightened out the succession crisis and had a bath, and doing those things did solve the respective problems, but now - I guess I haven't made this clear: I feel a strong sense of personal responsibility for your happiness. And it's starting to seem like my capacity to have romantic feelings has taken the 'hide in a cave for a thousand years' approach to the situation."
keep_busy
"...I can cope if I just get to be around you like we have been." Apparently, she will cope while shivering and with watering eyes, but, well.
first-and-final
...He looks at her.
"If that's what coping looks like, I don't want you to have to just cope. I want - it's, it's infuriating that you've been put in this situation. You should be happy. But apparently my heart is so unwilling to be blackmailed by fate that it's hiding in a cave rather than look at you, even though I really begin to suspect the results would be favourable, and... I..." He stands up abruptly. "Look, do you want a hug?"
"If that's what coping looks like, I don't want you to have to just cope. I want - it's, it's infuriating that you've been put in this situation. You should be happy. But apparently my heart is so unwilling to be blackmailed by fate that it's hiding in a cave rather than look at you, even though I really begin to suspect the results would be favourable, and... I..." He stands up abruptly. "Look, do you want a hug?"
first-and-final
She certainly won't be required to let go anytime soon.
"Do you want to just - I mean - I like you, I admire you, I want you to be happy, do you want to get married and save the world together and make everyone immortal?"
"Do you want to just - I mean - I like you, I admire you, I want you to be happy, do you want to get married and save the world together and make everyone immortal?"
first-and-final
"Okay, let's do that," says Stalas. "...I'm definitely about to fall asleep but I don't technically need to let go of you in order to do that, should I pick you up and carry you to bed and then fall asleep on you there?"
first-and-final
Stalas sleeps through the rest of the day and the entire subsequent night. He wakes up midmorning feeling simultaneously refreshed and exhausted, which is bizarre but not exactly unpleasant.
keep_busy
Annie does have to creep out from under him a couple of times to go to the bathroom and eat something but she is there when he wakes, dozing contently with her limbs all wrapped around him.
first-and-final
"Good morning. I feel... like I could get up and go right back to saving the world but would by far prefer to lie here for at least another day. Would you mind bringing me something to eat?"