An Important Survey

[offortune]

FORM: Hand-written and posted on the bulletin board, AND helpfully read aloud over the sending crystals.
SENDER: Rafael & Scipio, your friendly neighborhood layabouts
RECIPIENT: Everyone, like it or not
WHAT: An important survey written (and read) by two men with too much time on their hands and too few gloves obviously pro bono on behalf of the Inquisition to collect details, public opinion, and information to further refine and direct the practices and causes of said Inquisition. Helpfully. Informatively. And so forth.
WHEN: Mid-Wintermarch
WHERE: Skyhold, wherever sending crystals are
NOTES: Feel free to respond in text or audio! Replies will come from both Raf and Skip. Threadjacking highly encouraged!!

1. What is the most useless animal?

   1. If you had to be transformed into an animal what would you choose?

   2. Why would you not choose the most useless animal so that people would leave you alone?
      

2. Why do people want to go stand in the snow instead of at least going to a nice warm place even if it is full of Wardens?

3. Choose a better nickname for Skyhold.

   1. Some suggestions include:

      1. Skycold

      2. Snowhold

      3. Frozehold

      4. Frostbit shithole

4. Choose nicknames for the advisors. So far our favorites include Noodlehair Ruthotford, Josefiiiiiine, and Leliana (Isn't it a pretty name? Why mess with perfection? [We hear she'll stab us in our sleep.]). We are sure that you can all do better than these.

5. Choose a mascot for Skyhold. If you want it to be the same as the answer to #1 we're not going to argue.

6. Pick a motto for the Inquisition.

   1. Some suggestions:

      1. “The Hairy Eye Sees All”

      2. “A Lifetime of Cold”

      3. “Doing Some Good (And We Have Proof)”

7. What is the best thing to eat where you are from? Provide samples if possible. (Samples can be directed to SCIPIO AND RAFAEL at A TAVERN.)

8. If you could do one and only one magical spell, what would it be? (Mages do not need to answer.) (But they can if they want.)

9. List 3 cold weather tips.

10. Have you heard of Paul di Simone yet?

    1. If not, why not?

    2. What sort of cold and joyless rock do you live under precisely?

    3. Are you running to the Herald's Rest yet to hear the singer there do his songs?

    4. If yes, which of his masterpieces is your favorite?

Comments

[harthad_uluithiad]

Oh!

[ That surprises him, enough that he's actually stunned into silence for a moment. He hadn't considered that Scipio might be somewhere else.

But - sad, he'd said, and so sad that he doesn't even want to give his name! Not that Sam can understand why that should make a difference; he must be very sad indeed then, and that just won't do. ]

There's no call to be sad! She's in Skyhold right now, yes, but that don't mean she has to stay here. In fact she said herself she wants to see more of Thedas, so many places; and so do I. We could go where you are, perhaps, the both of us! Where are you, that we might find you, and you could meet her at last?

[bunko]

[somewhere else or about to be somewhere else? preferably somewhere very, very, very very very far away. later, this may factor into Scipio's decision to go to Emprise du Lion but for now, he only says, loudly:]

NO! Er, no. No, we are-- It is a mission, you see. One that is of a secret nature, such as Wardens must do. I suppose you must know of Grey Wardens by now, yes? And so you know that the work is important work, but also secret. It is such a secret that where I am is a secret.

Why, this very conversation, it should be secret!

[harthad_uluithiad]

[ that couldn't possibly be the same emprise du lion where galadriel will be cutting holes in ice ten feet deep and carving a bow -

But for now, Sam is just disappointed. A mission. Well, he can't argue with that. Only... ]

Grey Wardens?

[ He hasn't heard of them, in fact, but - important work - secret work -

It all sounds too familiar to be any kind of a coincidence at all. Only it can't be. Can it? He's in Thedas now, not in Middle-earth, and nothing and no one is the same, and - and he'd seen what had happened in Moria, only -

He has to ask, but his voice is a choked, desperate whisper when he finally does. ]

Like Gandalf?

[bunko]

[she can carve whatever she likes as long as she doesn't look at Scipio

The perfect end to this conversation could occur at this very moment, if Scipio were to say no, again, and be done with it. Only...

Only that isn't his style. Especially not when his curiosity has been piqued. And, despite the nibbles of terror that eat away at his convictions (the Elf, the terrible moment in that library, den of dread and horrors, a place that Scipio has avoided completely since leaving Galadriel on the sofa, lest she still be there, waiting to look at him again) (and also he has so little use for books)...]

Gandalf is not-- another tall elf, is she?

[If she is, then this conversation will absolutely be at an end.]

[harthad_uluithiad]

[ And just like that, he knows it's not true after all. Gandalf couldn't be here; if he was, then Scipio would know. Everyone would know. ]

No. [ And now he just sounds miserable. ] He - he's a wizard.

[ pause ]

...he was.

[bunko]

[Wizard means absolutely nothing to Scipio. They must be of some relation to Grey Wardens, though what that might be, Scipio doesn't know. He knows little of Wardens anyways, beyond tales and what he's learned in the moment (and what he's made up to fill in the gaps in that knowledge).

It's less the name, or the designation that makes him pause, again. The conversation will not end here. Perhaps it is how very sad Sam sounds, or the was, which suggests a loss that Scipio could be sympathetic with.]

He is, this-- wizard, a friend of yours, then?

[harthad_uluithiad]

A - a friend?

[ He considers. Friend is too familiar a name for someone as great as Gandalf, in the same way that he would never describe Galadriel as a friend. But...he was special, that's for certain. ]

He was a friend to all who knew him.

[ Even if Sam would have never dared to say it out loud. ]

[bunko]

Ah. There are such men, I think, but there are not enough of these men. If this Gandalf Wizard was such, it is sadder still that he is not here.

[After all, Sam seems all right. Galadriel, less so. But one out of two ain't bad; perhaps this place they are from is not full of the terrible. And besides, someone described as a friend to all can't look at people and make them want to crawl out of their very skin.]

I am sorry, again, Samwise Gamgee, that your friend to all has not come to Thedas, to keep you in good company.

[harthad_uluithiad]

Th-thank you.

[ Sam sighs, long and low and sad. ]

I guess I knew it weren't any use wondering. I - I knew he couldn't really be here. But it's only that he was Gandalf the Grey, rightly, and I thought - well anyhow.

If your mission is a secret, and your Wardens too, then I won't say a word about it to anyone, and you can count on that!

[bunko]

An easy conclusion to make, I think. Such similarities catch at the ears, when we are looking to hear them.

[Or so he has read ("read"). It has been a long time since Scipio ever truly missed someone so.]

Your caution and your discretion, Samwise Gamgee, they are appreciated. And in return I will listen for your Gandalf the Grey Wizard, and should any word come of him, I will use what resources and skill I have to help you to find him. On this, I give you my word. No man should be without his friends.

[harthad_uluithiad]

[ He perks up at that, briefly, before reality hits again. The idea of seeing Gandalf again, of a Grey Warden like Scipio looking out for him, is a wonderful one; but he knows it can't ever come to pass. ]

Oh! Why that's...that's right decent of you and no mistake. Only, well, only I'm afraid it wouldn't do much good. He...he fell, you see.

[ And Sam's face falls likewise, as his tone turns wistful and sad. Reciting the words the Elves had said of Gandalf's fate, because it's easier than saying it plainly. ]

He fell, fell into shadow, taken by a Balrog in Moria.

[ But his voice falters at last, thick in his throat. ]

We won't be seeing Gandalf no more. None of us, never again.

[bunko]

Ah...

[Well now he feels really bad. The loss of friends through this rift travel is one thing. The loss of friends to death itself, this is far more final. Scipio has but one friend he truly cares about, whose death would devastate him--there are others he would be sad to lose, to be sure--but only Rafael could make him feel such depths. And Rafael will never die, Old Gods or no, so this is nothing he ever thinks about, but--

But. He does remember sadness, long past.]

You must take comfort, my friend, and take courage too. No matter his fall, there will be a time that he is later seen. I do-- not know much of gods, and I do not know any of them in your world. But there is no end that is truly an end. This I know. And all roads will take a man somewhere, through shadows, even--and life is sweet, but there are sweet things beyond our living, and this seems but a small thing, to hold against great pain. But you must hold it, and not be lost. Even here, far from your home. Even far from friends.

[harthad_uluithiad]

[ Sam listens, sniffling quietly and wiping the tears from his eyes. He feels his heart grow slightly lighter as the Man speaks - not a feeling of happiness so much as peace and comfort. It seems he can almost see Gandalf, standing somewhere in a far green land, his grey hat on his head and his eyes crinkling with warmth as he smiles.

Perhaps Scipio is right. Perhaps Gandalf and his fireworks live on, somewhere, even if Sam can't see it. ]

Th-thank you.

[ He sniffles again, lapsing into thoughtful silence, and then adds cautiously, hopefully, ]

Perhaps...perhaps not all my friends are as far as all that.

[bunko]

I am sure, that they are not.

[Kind, but firm, he agrees and reassures all at once.]

And you may find that it does your heart a goodness, to think of them happily. And! [He punctuates that word cheerfully, calling more attention to what he will say next. (It is a good way to stop someone from sadness and tears, he has found.)] Though you are from from your home, and far from your friends--you are sure to find friends here, in this place! When I am thinking of returning home again, I am sure to think, too, of all that I have found here. The cold, it is terrible, and Skyhold, she is ugly. But even among the ice there are treasures to be found. So you will see, Samwise Gamgee!

And I hope that you will name me as a friend too, in time.

[After he's said that he thinks, wait, but leave that Galadriel out of it. Ah, well. Another time. surely he can befriend Samwise Gamgee and stay far from the woman with the deadly stare.]