Chapter Six: Preparations
I woke, at home, stiff and sore in my own bed. I was surprised to find that I was dry, no indication that I had soiled myself while unconscious. And my pockets were largely empty, so most of the things I left in the pack must still be there.
Good to know
. My bladder did feel full, but not painfully so, and I rolled out of the bed and stumbled into the bathroom to deal with some personal issues. Afterwards, I stood, turning to the mirror to wash my hands, and gasped as I glanced up at myself.
My hair was hanging off my head, dirty and tangled. My hands and face were filthy, covered in mud, and what must apparently have been darkspawn blood was spattered across my hands and my face. There were tear tracks apparent, leftover from my brief breakdown at camp, the only spots on my face that looked clean. I had never been so disgusting in my life.
I stripped bare, immediately hopping into a long, hot shower. I scrubbed until my skin was pink, washed my hair multiple times and put conditioner in, then just stood under the hot spray until the water started to run cold. Magic may be amazing, but nothing beats a hot shower. I dressed myself again in warm clothes, tied my hair back with an elastic, and started a pile of items to stow in my pockets before I passed out again. The first thing I added to the pile was a large bar of soap and a toothbrush. While digging through my cupboards, I made a fortuitous find - a sample package that must have come in the mail or something, with a man's razor. I added a small pair of hairdressing scissors. I dug through my purse and added all the coins I thought would be of value. And another clean pair of underpants.
You can't have too many clean underpants.
I flipped on the TV as I passed by, confirming that I had indeed been gone for two days. I was surprised to notice that I wasn't especially hungry or thirsty, but I ate and drank anyway. I brought in my mail, paid my bills, and put in a load of laundry, including my jeans and coat.
I turned on my computer, checking my email - still no job offers.
Stupid economy
. Though with all this blacking out, I couldn't really afford to be working anyway. I decided to spend a bit of time researching coins. My modern ones were all fine, but the minute someone realised they weren't really silver or copper we would be in trouble, and I didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves with strange money. It was frustrating trying to find anything online, as they all wanted to advertise rare, expensive coins. Finally I picked through the phone book and found a local coin dealer. I called the store, and actually got a person on the phone.
Impressive
. I hit on an inspiration, and told him that I was hosting a role playing event and wanted things to be 'authentic' but inexpensive. I was looking for copper or silver coins which would look old, but without actually costing me much money. We talked for a bit, and it turned out he had a lot of old Roman and British coin, which wasn't nice enough to be rare, but still looked medieval. He told me lots of it wasn't even legible, and I practically chortled - I didn't look forward to answering questions about who King or Queen or Emperor whoever was in Ferelden anyway. He asked if I wanted it cleaned, what sizes of coin I wanted, and eventually he agreed to box up a large assortment of random copper and silver, basically worthless coin and ship it to me for a couple hundred bucks. I paid over the phone by credit card.
Score!
I figured I could bring it over a few handfuls at a time.
I also ordered a few more Swiss army knives. I wanted to give Cailan one of his own, and that went double for Alistair.
Finished with gathering all the things I thought I might need, I stuffed my pockets, put on my coat, laced on my heavy hiking boots, and decided that I was ready for whenever the next blackout hit. To my surprise, for the first time, I think I was even looking forward to it.
And so, I waited. And waited.
I stressed about how I would find Duncan and Cailan again. I wondered what they thought of my sudden disappearance. I thought about what we would find in Lothering. I worried about what I'd do the next time I ended up in combat. I briefly considered signing up for self-defense classes, or fencing or something, but figured I'd just end up passing out and getting stabbed by mistake.
The more I thought about Lothering, the more I worried that my clothes were going to be a problem. I needed them to feel prepared in any way, or else I needed to find armour or something, but they were going to draw a lot of attention. No one in Ferelden wears jeans, but there was no way I was wandering around there in a dress, barefoot. I started doing yet more internet research, and found myself staring at Halloween costumes. Perhaps, if I found some sort of over-sized dress that would cover everything, I could blend better. And I needed to find a cloak. Frustrated with trying to figure it out online, I eventually dared to call a cab and venture out to find a custom tailor to sew the garments I needed.
I used the same line about doing a role-playing event, and needing to wear warm clothing underneath a dress but still have it look passable, at least at a distance. The dressmaker seemed to think she could pull something off, and showed me a couple of quick sketches of a simple yet elegant looking dress. She took down my measurements, promising to call me when it was done. I paid a fifty dollar deposit, agreeing to pay extra if the dress and cloak could be available within a couple of days, but warned her that I might be 'out of town' unexpectedly so she'd need to leave a message.
I made it back to my house without blacking out, relieved. After supper, I spent the rest of the evening reading the Dragon Age wiki trying to determine the timeline of events such as Eamon's poisoning, Riordan's capture, Zevran's ambush, and Uldred's attempted coup at the Circle Tower. I was unsuccessful and finally give up in a huff. Between unknown travel times and no forced order in which you experience the events, it just didn't seem possible. I did notice that nothing about the wiki indicated my adventures had any effect on the game. It still cited Duncan and Cailan as having died at Ostagar. I finally climbed into bed, anxious and overly warm, and fell asleep.
The next day I woke still at home, so after working on finding a job for a while, I found myself at a loss. Somehow playing Dragon Age again, or reading the books by David Gaider, just seemed...wrong, knowing that it was actually real, but nothing else appealed to me either. It occurred to me, as I thought about the books, that I actually didn't live all that far from where BioWare and David Gaider were located. I spent the rest of the day, after eating, drinking, showering, and other basic necessities, cyber-stalking David Gaider. I read every interview I could find, hoping to get a glimmer of how he developed the story, how he invented Ferelden. Everything I could find was vague and pointed to a collaborative project between writers and game designers, but I had a hard time believing that was true. He wrote the books. Somehow, some way, he knew more about Ferelden. He'd been there, even if in dreams.
I contemplated going to Edmonton one day and trying to track him down, but didn't get very far along that thought process. Every time I tried to picture it in my head, I ended up locked in a psych ward, or in jail for being a stalker. I put it out of my mind and watched boring television until I finally managed to fall asleep.
The next morning my box of coins arrived. I spent a little while sorting through them, replacing the modern ones in my pockets with useable copper and silver coins. Shortly after, the phone rang, and the tailor informed me my dress was ready. Calling another cab, I went in for a fitting and found a rather perfect, thick, green, floor-length fake velvet gown. It fit over my clothes, and while it made the sleeves look a bit rumpled, it actually worked pretty well. Unless someone came quite close, I would look like a chubby noblewoman. I think. Not that I'd seen any noblewomen to compare, but it was better than wandering around in jeans.
