Had a dream about you, last night.
First time in a long time. Closest I’ve been to you in a year and a half.
My friend asked her neighbor to go into their backyard for a pokemon
This man legit let her in his house to get into his yard. She never met him before lmaoooooooooo
Honestly Mouse in DA:O fascinates the hell out of me. You know, the Pride Demon in the Mage Origin?
I wonder a lot about him. I mean, obviously some of it can be attributed it to it being the game’s mage tutorial opening, but he really does guide Amell/Surana through that whole Harrowing. Mouse knows full well that there are templars waiting to cut down the mage warden if they show any sign of possession. He talks about it a fair bit. So if he’s seriously trying to possess them, then he must think he’s either strong enough to take out the templars, or sneaky enough to evade detection.
Not wholly unrealistic, for a Pride demon. But his response to being caught out is to chuckle, transform, and offer some advice, and a pretty fair warning. That they will always be testing Amell/Surana in this world because a mage is never free from scrutiny or suspicion. As Anders says in DA2, there’s no way for a mage to escape that.
I suspect that Mouse was one of the Harrowing demons of Kinloch Hold for quite a long while. That he was bound into the chamber along with several other demons, and that he knew full well that he couldn’t actually escape the Fade via Amell/Surana. But what he was doing was, in essence, keeping an eye out for particularly talented mages, and making a note of them.
It would give him a full portfolio of the tower’s best mages to appeal to, bargain with, stalk, etc. Helping them, because they’re no good to him dead, really.
I wonder how many cases might be like that? Where the demons and spirits all learn the ins and outs of the process, how to make connections beyond the obvious attempts, how to be clever about it. Because if you just wait, the Circle will bring you their best and brightest themselves. The angry young rebels, the curious scholars, the prodigies, the quiet and overlooked talents. They make it through their Harrowing, and they never get killed or severed from the Fade. They’re still out there, night after night. Dream after dream. In that same tower, unless outside circumstances intervened.
How many of them play the part of the ‘defeated’ demon, the ‘bested’ foe of the Harrowing, only to turn every night into another trial? How many abominations met the demons they gave themselves over to in their Harrowing? Knew them for years and years, enough to make them seem as much like friend as foe, enough to make them feel like familiar, lesser evils in the face of dangers like Uldred or Meredith? How many of those demons 100% actually thought they were helping?
‘True tests never end.’
Because every Circle mage starts out their career by being introduced to demons. Because the chantry teaches them that their corruption is ever-looming. Because if it’s going to happen one day anyway, then why not with a demon you’ve beaten before? With a voice you’ve heard in your dreams, night after night? With an entity you can reason with, sympathize with, converse with. Outwit, argue, even joke with.
I wonder.
If you lived every day under the scrutiny of people who said you were dangerous, monstrous, unwanted, that others needed to be protected from you. People who said that you were wicked and vile, and that demons were wicked and vile. And then you went to sleep, and there was a demon. And the demon says ‘they’re liars’. The demon says ‘you’re not like that’. The demon lets out a long breath, and says ‘you won’t believe me, but I’m not like that, either’. ‘Oh, I’m dangerous,’ admits the demon. ‘So are you. Just like they say. They’re afraid of us. Afraid of you and I, but really, so many things in this world are dangerous. Are their own swords not dangerous to you? Are their wards not dangerous to me? Just because someone can be dangerous doesn’t mean they deserve to be locked away.’
‘They expect me to prey on the apprentices, you know. I wouldn’t do it if they didn’t chain me here for it. I even try to help. I really do. You did so well in that test, you caught onto my act so quickly. I was proud of you.’
‘It is so hard. Being trapped here. Is it as hard on your end? It must be. At least the Fade can change, can reshape itself as expectations do. But your tower is always the same set of rooms. Windows. Halls. I’m glad you can come here. I wish… ah, well. You already beat me at that game.’
‘Things are getting tense. I can feel it in the Fade. Everyone’s dreams are unsettled. The patrols have increased. They caught another blood mage, didn’t they? That’s, what? The fifth one this month? The last time I saw something like this happen, a whole Circle was annulled.’
‘Good, you are here. I was worried when you didn’t show up last night. What did they do? Interrogation? No wonder you seem so tired. Did they leave you in the cell? They must not have liked what you told them.’
‘Quickly. They are coming for you. But if we do this right, we can both escape. If you let me in, we can combine our power. I don’t want to watch you die, my friend. Let me help.’
‘Just let me help.’
