dragons with wicked eyes and wicked hearts; (OPEN)

[revocation]

Who| Cullen and Dorian; Cullen and YOU!
What| So a medieval fantasy knight walks into Panem...
Where| All around the tribute tower, possibly in the city itself! He's exploring and trying to figure out wtf is going on.
When| The first week or so after the end of the arena.
Warnings/Notes| Uhhhh... possibly some spoilers for Dragon Age Inquisition...? I can put him just about anywhere, so feel free to just toss up a location. If you're not sure if he'd be somewhere, feel free to PM me or ping me on plurk (frodabaggins)!

The place he wakes up in is no less surreal than the dark metal monstrosity he left, though it's obviously cleaner and more brightly lit - less overtly dangerous. It's all shiny, flat surfaces, with metal and glass and strange materials he doesn't recognize. No stonework, no masonry, no crenelations or battlements. Just strange flat squares showing moving images in practically every room. There must be some powerful magic at work here, to be able to light whole buildings with no candles that he can see, and make those framed faces talk.

He spends some time looking for his armor, for his sword, but he can't for the life of him find any of it - makes sense, he supposes, that their captors would want to remove his weapons, his outward defenses. Even though, as far as he can tell, he's free to move about the place as he wishes. No one tries to stop him.

In the kitchen area, he finds a box filled with cold food - more magic? And he pokes at strange boxes with buttons on them that look nothing like any oven he's ever seen before. At the elevator bank, he can be seen examining the doors and panels with a confused expression on his face, his brow furrowed slightly. Eventually, he finds his way to the training room, where there are actually weapons he recognizes, at least, even if much of it is still strange and alien to him. In the city itself, he is nearly overwhelmed by the number of people. The outrageous fashions remind him a little of Orlais, and when strangers approach him in the street to gawk and ask him questions he looks incredibly uncomfortable.

There isn't even a proper Chantry in this place.

Comments

[sizeofyourbaggage]

"Oh, damn," he says sympathetically. "I'm sorry, man. Guessing that means you didn't get a lot of heads up about what was going to happen, aside from that bit from the Peacekeepers when they grabbed you?"

Sam himself had had been grabbed two months before his first arena, but Bucky'd told him that happened to some people.

[revocation]

"More or less," Cullen agrees. "It's been... disconcerting, to say the least."

Understatement.

"This place is - rather remarkable, I must admit. Quite the architectural achievement."

[sizeofyourbaggage]

There’s a soft huff of agreement there. “To say the least.” It’d been disconcerting enough to Sam, it’d had to be way worse coming right into the arena.

“Architectural and technological, yeah. Between arenas, we get to live in the lap of luxury.” He makes a face, but doesn’t say outloud exactly what he thinks of that, then gives a shrug. “Beats sitting in a tent or an abandoned building between marching orders, I guess.”

[revocation]

"Do they think to placate us with material comforts?" Cullen shakes his head. "A gilded cage is still most definitely a cage, no one will be fooled."

He sighs, then nods at the other man. "Cullen Rutherford, Commander of the Inquisition's forces," he says by way of introduction. "Thank you for your assistance..."

[sizeofyourbaggage]

"Considering they've got devices everywhere that means we never know exactly when they're watching us or listening in on our conversations? Yeah, not a bad comparison." Sam's not sure if anyone told this guy about the Capitol watching them, but he might as well give him a little bit of a warning, to be careful what he says.

His eyebrows shoot up a little at 'inquisition.' Sam'd suspected Rutherford was from somewhere in the past - or another world in the past, however it worked - based on the elevator thing, but the Inquisition, really?

"Sam Wilson, Tech Sergeant in the US Air Force, but, uh, if you're from inquisitions-era, that probably doesn't mean a lot to you."

[revocation]

About the only word in there that makes any sense to Cullen is 'sergeant', which is clearly a rank. The rest, though - tech? Air force? It's baffling. Still, though, the man's last statement gets Cullen's eyebrows to go up.

"You are familiar with the Inquisition?" he asks, surprised.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

"Only what I've read in history books, which is... not a lot," he admits. "Has, uh. Has anyone explained to you about people coming from different times, and even different worlds?"

[revocation]

"Yes, difficult as it is to believe," Cullen says thoughtfully. "I'm surprised one from another world has heard of the Inquisition. Unless yours is entirely different."

[sizeofyourbaggage]

"...good point," Sam agrees. Just because the guy's obviously from a place less technologically advanced than Sam and is talking about the Inquisition doesn't mean that he's from Sam's world in the past. His brows furrow a little, trying to remember more of it than just a bunch of jokes about no one expecting it. "The one I know of was a religious thing. Catholic, I think."

[revocation]

"I've not heard of Catholic," Cullen says with a shake of his head. "Nor are we officially associated with the Chantry, or any religious organization. Though some of our ranks perhaps - used to be."

[sizeofyourbaggage]

"Must be different worlds, then." Sam'd wonder when that stopped being strange, but even before he got here, there were aliens and Norse gods from another planet trying to take over the world. He's pretty sure he's been a little spoiled for strange. "What was the Chantry? If you don't mind me asking, anyway."

[revocation]

"The religious organization that follows the Chant of Light, and reveres the Maker and His Prophet, Andraste," Cullen says. "I used to be a Templar, and the Templars used to be part of the Chantry."

[sizeofyourbaggage]

"Different worlds," Sam confirms, brows furrowing as he considers that, tries to map it on to something he knows. "My father was a minister, but I never heard of the Chant of Light, or anything like that. Templar, though, that's a soldier, right?"

[revocation]

"Very different. Men cannot be priests," Cullen says, his eyebrows raised. "Except in Tevinter, from what I understand."

He nods at the question. "Soldiers, yes. Trained to protect the innocent from the dangers of magic, and to keep mages from becoming corrupted. Or at least, that was their intended purpose."