I fell in love with Greedfall – you should check it out – and wrote a story or two for that in between playing Dragon Age, so apologies for the massive delay in updating this bit of silliness. As always, feel free to request canon appearances or give song prompts for future chapters. Cheers!

There was no sound of battle once they fell through the portal. No sting from the Mark on her hand either, as was the norm when traveling through or around the damned Rifts. In fact, before Melusine blinked the world back into focus, she heard the whine of machinery and felt the chill of air conditioning.

"Fuck yes!" A voice she'd almost forgotten was real interrupted her scattered thoughts. "It worked!"

Melusine finally opened her eyes and winced as the fluorescent bulbs in the overhead light fixture glared their brightness into her skull. A groan from somewhere beside her had Melusine startling, more surprised that there was still someone with her than that – apparently – Raymond had finally succeeded in pulling her out of the video game. From the sputtering sounds of surprise coming from her friend and colleague at the orb lab's door, it appeared he hadn't expected to pull more than Melusine from the game.

"Wh-where am I?"

Melusine pushed herself off the floor, using the orb for balance and happily grasping Raymond's offered hand for support and reassurance as the pair of them stared at the dazed elf, slowly coming to at their feet. Melusine squeezed Raymond's hand before shifting to look past him and around the orb, curious if more than just the two of them had come through.

"Only the two of you were caught in the transmitting algorithmic beam." Raymond's eyes were wide as he continued to stare at the video game character come to life. "I thought it was a glitch, actually, that maybe because I'd caught you in motion and going through one of those Rifts that you were registering as two entities. But…" Raymond let go of Melusine's hand to gesture at the flesh-and-blood elf, who continued to sit on the cold floor of the lab, hands outstretched, studying his own flesh as if seeing it for the first time. "The fuck Mel…what the fuck?"

"Who are you?" The elf narrowed his gaze on Raymond, eyes taking in how Raymond still stood close to Melusine's side. "Where are the others?" He had yet to stand, though he broke eye contact to scan the oval room for the rest of their party.

"Solas, this is my colleague, Raymond. He's one of the inventors of this device," Melusine patted the orb that had basically spit them out, "which is what first transported me into Thedas and now, apparently, has transported both of us out of Thedas." She held out a hand for Solas, noting that while he still wore his armor, his staff was missing. Solas seemed to shiver just as much as Melusine when he accepted her hand, apparently still getting used to having sensations in a true three-dimensional sense with actual body mass. "Raymond, can you check on the gam-" Melusine stopped herself, not sure if now was the time to let Solas know he was supposed to be mere coding in a video game, "the others in Thedas? Let us know how things are faring while we're here? I think Solas and I need something to drink while we get our wits together."

While Solas looked ready to argue against her suggestion, his body swayed, and without further protest, he leaned against Melusine as she led the two of them from the room toward the adjacent break room. Leaving Solas in the hard plastic chair, Melusine stumbled over to the fridge to pull out two juice boxes. She placed one in front of Solas and started to walk toward the cupboards for snacks but then stopped, turned around, and retrieved the box from Solas. She used her teeth to open the thin cellophane encasing the straw, then stabbed it through the silver hole for him.

"It is very sweet, a type of juice. Should help us both recover faster." Solas stared at the box until Melusine repeated the movements with her own juice box and took a long sip. It'd been so long since she'd had such straight-to-the-teeth sugar she nearly choked. "I'll see if I can find something for us to eat."

"Is this where you live?" Glancing over her shoulder, Melusine watched Solas examine the writing on the box before tentatively taking a sip and almost immediately crinkling his nose in distaste. He took another sip, moving his gaze around the room as he waited for her answer.

"No, I live in a small apartment a few blocks away. Raymond also lives nearby. This is just a lab where we come to study things and do experiments." Settling on pre-packaged unsalted nuts as being the least jarring to both their stomachs, Melusine opened both packets and dumped them on a plate before returning to drop into the chair across the small metal table from him.

She was the first to eat, though Solas was less reluctant to eat than he had been to drink, recognizing the nuts for what they were. Melusine couldn't help but stare as he ate, and to be fair, he did the same with her. It was strange to see him like this, and while she was used to feeling, for lack of a better word, how she felt in the three-dimensional body mass sense, this was his first time. He seemed to be taking it slowly, contemplatively, and this was unsurprising considering what she knew about him. Which, as the most elusive member of her team, was practically nothing still.

"So," Raymond popped into the room without warning, earning a startled grunt from Solas and a near choke from Melusine when a nut bypassed her teeth and went directly down her throat, "things are progressing in…" he glanced at Solas and remembering Melusine's earlier caution, stuck with it. "Thedas. From what I can tell, they're continuing forward with events."

Solas turned to stare at Raymond, "How are you able to monitor these events?" Looking between the two, he frowned. "Have you always been able to monitor us?"

"How long was I gone?" Melusine bypassed answering Solas' question for the time being.

"About seven hours. I think the first shift is going to be here in about two hours, so we better," Raymond rubbed the back of his neck, "figure this out," he waved a hand between Melusine and Solas, "before then or else…well, I don't know what else."

"Sever hours here correlates to seven months there, so if it takes us two hours to figure things out here, then –"

"I paused the game," Raymond winced only after realizing he'd used the "g" word, but Melusine didn't fault him. There really was no other way to say it. ."I've played it before and can tell you that things won't go well, or even forward, without the Herald there or the Dread Wolf there to finish things off."

Solas tried to stand but, still woozy from the change, fell back against his seat, "What are you saying? Who are you?" His wide eyes studied Raymond, namely his ears, then looked back to Melusine. "Is he one of your kind?"

It was Melusine's turn to grimace as she now wondered just how much Raymond had been able to monitor and see from his panels. Based on the color creeping into his cheeks, it seemed likely he'd seen everything and knew everything, including her true nature. Melusine sighed, shaking her head in response to Solas' question.

"I want to answer your questions, Solas, but I need more answers from Raymond." Melusine took a deep breath. "Can we send him back? Let things finish off with the actual Herald there so it runs as it should, without the adjustments my presence likely made to the original program?" Solas' eyes narrowed, but he kept quiet for the time being, trying to figure things out on his own.

Raymond sighed, "I don't know, Mel. If I try to send just his algorithm back, it may break, which might break the whole thing. The entire progress might be wiped or, worse yet, the whole program could throw an error code and everything gets wiped. I'd have to buy a new game, which isn't the end of OUR world but," Raymond gestured to Solas, "this is big, Mel. I don't think we should just flippantly think we can reset things or restart things, or risk breaking the current game. He's actually here." Raymond picked up the empty juice box and waved it in Melusine's face as if to prove his point. "Fucking Fen'Harel just drank a juice box, Mel."

Again Solas made to stand, this time making it to his feet. He was shorter than Raymond, though they were about the same svelte build. Unless Raymond was hiding an equally steely nature beneath his comic strip t-shirts and loose cargo pants, Melusine's money was on Solas if a fight broke out.

"I demand to know how it is you know of me?" Melusine's loud sipping on her juice box broke Solas' glare long enough for Raymond to shift away from Solas if the elf was inclined to strike physically. Glare still just as strong even pointed at Melusine, the dangerous timber of Solas' voice didn't change when he spoke again, "How long have you known my true identity?"

"In truth, Solas, I don't know what the fuck you or Raymond are talking about. I was only barely paying attention in more than a few conversations about elven lore and vaguely recall the name 'Dread Wolf' coming up. I think you were the one to reference some old elf legend about some fuck-tard elf in the ancient days, the name Fen'Harel seems vaguely familiar there too." Raymond sucked in a breath between his teeth, not so subtly gesturing toward Solas, who in turn tipped his head up, staring down his nose at her. "Let me guess, you were being a coy cunt playing with us all, leading us on a merry chase, leaving little clues here and there to chase after while you played the puppetmaster?"

"Not exactly wrong, but not exactly right either." Raymond leaned forward, physically breaking through the momentary stare-down between Melusine and Solas. "There's more to it than that. Some people actually felt his actions were justified, while most felt he was one of the best villains Bioware made. Making him a potential love interest if you played an elf since he's more than a little racist."

Melusine snorted, "I've lived that reality, don't worry."

"The way you speak," Solas tightened his hands into fists, "it sounds as if you've seen how it all ends, and not just you, but others too." A bit of the earlier arrogance was leaking out of his voice, being replaced with that vulnerable uncertainty she'd first heard when they'd both woken up in the orb room. "I ask again, where am I, and how do you know these things?"

Raymond glanced at Melusine, taking in the armor she still wore, the daggers still strapped to her body – though she'd lost her sword and crossbow in the transfer – then looked to Solas, studying his equally armored body, though the elf lacked all weapons aside from his mind. They had yet to determine if his magic worked here, which they were fucked if it could. Melusine sighed before standing.

"Everything you think you know is about to get turned on its head, and how you handle it is completely up to you." Raymond shifted away from the doorway as Melusine moved around the table to stand next to Solas, "Raymond, can you get a game trailer up on your computer or something? Maybe pull some of the past gameplay we've lived, if you can without fucking stuff up?" Raymond nodded, leaving them to get started. "I want you to know that for the past seven months, the life we've lived in Thedas was just as real to me as it was to you. And the stakes were high for me, though probably not as high for me as they were for you since this," Melusine gestured to the room around them, "is my reality. This is my…truth. Your world is more like the Fade for me. And not just for me but for everyone in this world."

Solas' nod was curt, and his movements stunted as Melusine led him from the break room towards the main control room, where Raymond was still working at getting various things booted up that could help solve this conundrum. Or at least a part of it.

"Also, though Raymond alluded to your acting the mighty villain in Thedas," Solas glared, jaw clenching, "and I still don't understand all that, I want you to know that I see it as my responsibility to return you to your world. Be you saint or sinner, you don't deserve to be separated from your world."

Solas' glare lessened marginally before he spoke, "I'm curious if you'll still feel that way once you know everything."

"Well," Melusine gestured for Solas to precede her into the control room, "I guess we're going to find out, aren't we?"