DISCLAIMER: This will serve as the entire story's disclaimer from this chapter on. I do not own Dragon Age, the games, books, comics, or any other media format Dragon Age has been published in. All credits go to David Gaider and Bioware and EA. I only own Original Characters, aka characters you do not recognize from the game. Some characters you do recognize but they were referred to by their title only, and some characters you may not recognize because they were referred to by name only and never seen. I am talking about characters you do not recognize both in description and name, those are the ones that are mine. So until further noted, Remy & Mercy (Mercedez) are the only ones that belong to me.
A/N: It bothers me there isn't a section for notes and stuff on ff. net that doesn't count toward the word count, but whatever. Before I used the first chapter as sort of a "dump notes and review responses there" but it got to be a big hassle. Really big. So, scrapping that and just gonna follow the accepted procedure on ff. net. Disclaimer at the top, review responses at the top or bottom. I'll be adding any Spanish (or Antivan) words and phrases at the top so you know what it means beforehand instead of having to scroll to the bottom midway through.
Maker Damned is a companion piece to Maker, Have Mercy. it is not required to read MHM to be able to understand although there are some parts of this story that will refer to my OC Mercy in MHM, but it's not related to the plot or story that happens in MHM. Both Maker, Have Mercy and Maker Damned are posted on Ao3 under the same story names and author name.
The cabin shook as the plane met turbulence. The weather hadn't said anything about storms but you know the weather, unpredictable as ever. There could be dark clouds rolling over looking like it's about to rain and the clouds just continue rolling and it becomes a sunny day.
"Remy, how much you want to bet seat 20A complains again?" The whispered voice of Marianna made me snicker but it dropped when the plane once again shook. There wasn't much we could do about that and we were too far away from any port to land and get out of the storm. So we had to suffer through it for now.
"Are you two done gossiping or are you going to help me take this out?" Our supervisor, Nancy, glowered over her cart. Marianna and I shared a look but we continued on with our work.
I'm a flight attendant, granted only during the summers to pay for school. This was my first long flight. Beatrice who normally took these flights because she was a more senior worker, was ill and I was the only one free to do it. So of course, I took the job, loving the boost I'd get for the prolonged hours from the flight from Canada to Brazil with a layover in New York and then I could take a quick break to visit my father before hitching to another flight back to the states and then another to home to Saskatoon.
"Bruja pendeja…" Marianna mumbled under her breath as she prepared the rest of the food onto my own cart. Standard procedure to offer refreshments when there was turbulence, anything to get the passengers minds off the occasional shaking.
"Just because I don't speak Spanish, doesn't mean I don't know an insult when I hear one." Nancy grumbled as she hastily set up everything in the most convenient way possible. Nancy hated turbulence because she survived a plane crash once. Which was comforting to us because we knew she'd take care of us, but that didn't mean she'd like to experience it again.
"I'm sorry, pequeña." My nickname for her made her glare but I saw the twitch of her lips. "I'll keep Maria busy for you." At the waggle of my eyebrows, Nancy snorted but pushed her cart out.
Marianna smacked my arm playfully but pushed me to go out. Fraternization wasn't allowed amongst flight attendants but I got away with it because of the misconception my coworkers had about me. They all thought I was gay. I know, horribly wrong of me to let them continue to think that but they aren't completely off the mark.
I pushed the snack cart and donned my most professional and warm smile as I attended to first class. A rich family with their misbehaving teenager who refused to lower the volume of her music. A Brazilian Dignitary whom I chatted with in Spanish about the political situation currently. I kept up to date but only because my father was currently in Brazil.
I tended to Mrs. O'Reilson whom I've seen multiple times over the summer. She was a rich old lady and went all over the world, donating this and donating that to all kinds of causes and never had want for anything. She would have flown economy, to save money, if her agent and board of directors hadn't forced her to. She was a pleasant woman and flirted with me madly, despite being old enough to be my great-grandmother. Not that I gave any less than she, I encouraged her. Always nice to be told you're attractive.
Moving on from first class, I joined Nancy for Economy. Thankfully most of the passengers were asleep or trying to distract themselves from the shaking of the plane.
"Sir. Can you tell that… that woman to cover up. It's inappropriate!" And here was 20A. A high strung woman practically dragged me over and pointed to a woman who was breastfeeding her child. It wasn't exactly against the rules but this lady had made many complaints so far and I rather not deal with her again, especially as the plane shook again.
Inwardly sighing, I looked to her. "I'll take care of it in a moment. But you look thirsty, perhaps some water? Soda or juice?" My accent was especially heavy when I dealt with her. I leaned forward "Or perhaps something stronger? On the house?" I gave a wide smile, her son who sat next to her rolled his eyes but leaned forward to catch a glimpse of the breastfeeding woman.
"Oh… oh yes please." The woman's hand trailed along my arm and I grit my teeth but nodded. I served her a watered down coke and rum and then moved along.
It was relatively easy to deal with most of these people. As I moved toward the back, I switched which side I stood on thanks to the bathroom and then walked backwards to the back of economy, helping those there.
"Mercedes, just calm down. You need to get used to the plane. We'll be making these trips more often if this goes well," Was the first thing I heard as I pulled the cart backwards. I turned to see a white haired women, trying to pry the clutching hands of her blonde companion off the armrest. The woman in question had her eyes screwed shut.
"Something wrong ladies?" I questioned as softly as I could. The scared one peeked at me just as the plane shook again, only it was a rather rough one, I had to brace myself against the chairs.
"Remy." My headset went off in my ear. "The turbulence is getting worse. Finish up quickly so we can strap ourselves in.
"She's just scared of flying. Do you have Dramamine? Motion sickness, you know." I nodded and pulled the small package out and set the pills down with some water and a bag of chips.
"Anything for you?"
"No, thank you dear."
Quickly, but with no less amount of care I served the rest of economy and placated their worries and then pushed my cart back, secured it and strapped myself in next to my coworkers. The plane shook a lot. I peeked out to the window and saw the storm clouds and that's when I caught the lightning as it arced through the clouds and struck the plane not once or twice, but three times. I guess lightning can strike the same spot more than once.
Panic would have set in if I hadn't been drilled and drilled on what to do in this scenario. Still, the nerves jittered me as Marianna and I made sure to put our life vests on before we began speaking in English and Spanish to the crowd about the emergency situation. We'll have to make a landing, hopefully somewhere on land if we can make it, though given our current pass over open water, that wasn't likely.
I could feel my heart pumping but had to make sure the passengers were alright. The lifeboats came with radios and flares and everything needed to survive this kind of situation. I reminded myself of this over and over, even as I helped some of the children in economy put their life vests on.
I was halfway through economy, watching the air marshal helping us when the plane took a nose dive. Screams erupted around me, but I kept myself tight lipped, gripping a seat as I listened to the pilot relay the emergency situation to the nearest port in Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese.
I heard sobbing around me, but the Air Marshal pulled me up and we continued ensuring everyone was ready.
"Everyone get ready we're crashing in the ocean." Came over the coms and we rushed to the emergency exit to help open it the moment we touched. It happened so fast. We all felt the impact, the splash of water and clasp of the emergency exit popped open. The self-inflatable slide coming out and lifeboats ejected but tethered to the slide until we cut it off.
It was a rush as the passengers and those in our care took their seats with them as they slid down and joined others out there.
"Son, help me make sure everyone has evacuated." I listened to the Air Marshal as we rushed to ensure economy was empty. I took one side and he took the other. That's when we both saw them.
"Ma'am! You have to get out of here!"
"I just need to grab my carry on!" Her panicked voice cried as she tried to dislodge her bag. The Air Marshal cursed but grabbed her by her waist and pulled her away, her older companion following after.
I don't know why I decided to do what I did but I blame my sympathy for the woman. I leaned back on my arms on the seats and kicked the compartment and the bags came out. I grabbed them, and slung them over my shoulders and did a final check of the area before rushing to the exit, dipping to grab my small bag as well and sliding down the slide.
"Mercedes it's not worth more than your life!"
"It's your fault if you hadn't convinced me to get on a fucking plane!" I saw the woman and reached out as she stood up angrily. The storm was loud and rough but I went to grab her when a wave hit the boat.
Two things occurred to me. One, we were both going overboard. And two, she didn't have a life vest on. I swore as the water hit me, pulling me out and swam for her as she flailed in the water.
Thunder rolled and lightning crashed as we were both pulled away from the boats, my life vest activated and inflated as I tried to reach the woman but I was weighed down by the bags.
That's when I saw a great big flash of light. Green and white and it hit the water, rippling through. It felt like I was burning at first and then nothing as another wave hit me.
The next thing I remember is hitting a hard wood floor, water and bags around me as I coughed up water. A burning sensation on my skin and inside of me as hacked up as much water as I could. Once I could take a shaky breath in I noticed the feet that surrounded me and looked up just in time to see the tip of a sword positioned in front me.
My eyes followed the length of the arm to a dark tanned wrist covered in many bracelets, a leather jacket of sorts and then to a neck adorned in an elaborate gold necklace to the chin with a simple gold piercing and then up to the most marvelous golden brown eyes I have ever seen. Then I took in her large hat that sat slightly skewed and the devilish smile and mischievous eyes that peered at me.
"Anders, is he a demon?" Her voice was a beautiful as she was and her lips, the way they moved, stirred my loins. I think she did it on purpose because she smirked at me.
"No, I don't know what he is but he doesn't feel like a demon but…" That's when I looked to the man standing next to her. He had ginger blonde hair, and what looked to be about the saddest most forlorn eyes I ever met.
"Demon?" I croaked and then broke into a coughing fit, my body shaking as I clutched my chest.
A glowing blue hand appeared in front of me. I yelped and pushed myself back and away, those standing around us scattered as I stared at the one called Anders as he looked at me shock. "Diablo! You accuse me of being a demon but look at you!"
TRANSLATIONS:
Mala Suertes - Bad Luck (Chapter Title)
Bruja pendeja - Stupid witch
pequeña - nickname for a dear person that is short, or small. sometimes younger.
Diablo! - The Devil, contextually is used as an exclamation sort of like Damnit! or Wow