therookery | [ OPEN ] Let No Soul Hunger For Justice: An Inquiry.

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[ OPEN ] Let No Soul Hunger For Justice: An Inquiry.

FORM: Sending Crystals
SENDER: Adelaide LeBlanc
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Vaguely philosophical question time
WHEN: Current
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Part of Let No Soul Hunger For Justice.

[ Adelaide’s voice is even, if tired- but what else is new? Still this is a requirement for the next ritual and to that end, she must find some sort of acceptable truth from a variety of opinions. Sequestered in ‘her’ desk in the Library, full pot of coffee warmed to one side, sheaves of blank paper and bottles of fresh ink before her. To her right? Anders with a similar set up, papers, quills, ink- a kitten. To her left, Roul to take just as many notes. Prepared as they are ever going to be- she asks. ]

A few questions for the Inquisition:

What is a soul, truly? What fundamental differences are there between a mortal’s soul and the embodiment of a spirit? Is it the culmination of our thoughts and experiences, our emotions? Is it a combination of our self given purpose and our ambition?

A mortal might change their purpose, might grow and become more due to our experiences- most spirits do not. But what more than that? What sets one soul apart and makes it distinct from another? Can the same be said of similar spirits?

Answers need not be religious or academic- merely true. What do you believe to be the difference, what do you believe to be a soul?

[ ooc: threadjacking is welcome and encouraged ]

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You could say we're fishing for answers here.

[One awful joke deserves another, though he sighs shortly after.]

When someone's eyes no longer light up, there's a terrifying Tranquility to them. Have you come across anyone who has lost themselves in other ways?

I'm definitely hooked, myself.

( buuttt then it's getting serious, and she sighs as well. )

It's so weird. Back home-- tranquil is a good thing. Peace and tranquility are kind of just words you'd use to describe a nice, restful holiday where you didn't have to do anything.

( Not exactly, but you know. ) I've-- well, I've heard about and met people who were consumed by their own power, I guess? Or the need for it? Things like empathy and compassion kinda fell by the wayside. I think that might be something a little different, though.

It's... different, yes. It sounds like we're speaking more of a moral loss of soul rather than the complete absence. Degradation, perhaps? Then we're also getting into philosophy, and questions of whether a soul steeped in darkness can find light again.

[His voice is heavy.]

At least I can tell you that we've the same meaning for peaceful, and hope that's some small comfort.

They can, I think. At least... i mean, I think I've seen something like that? They have to want it. And it's definitely hard. It's sort of like a darkness filling your heart, the way I've heard it described. Once there's that one spot in there, it just... it balloons out, I guess.

( Ruby sounds a little rueful. ) It is, but I don't think I'm going to be rushing to call anything tranquil anytime soon.

( A pause. ) Can I... ask about the absense of soul thing? Is that weird? I've been trying to learn so much since I got here, but there's always more.

[That repentance actually matters somewhere matters to him. He doesn't need Thedas to suddenly embrace him, simply to know that there may be some redemption eventually, if he wants it enough. But that's not what he answers. It's too personal.]

Let's take this a little out of the public eye, please. Ask what you would like about Tranquility and I will attempt to help explain what goes on, but know that this is not an easy topic.

If it's--

( She stops, a mix of uncomfortable and sympathetic. ) I can go read it in a book, if you don't want to talk about it. I know how that can be. Some things are just-- impossible to get out without feeling like you're--

( like you're being taken apart and exposed and things that probably sound equally melodramatic but are the only things that come to mind. )

I get what it's like to not like talking about something. You don't have to go through that.

[There's a delay in his response as he considers her words before choosing.]

A book can't convey the horror of it in reality. I doubt even Varric could write something that encapsulated all of what Tranquility is. I've lost... I've lost good people to it. And I've been mocked with the possibility of having it happen. I can tell you what you'd like to know.

Yeah. Figures.

( That's the messed up thing. )

I just wondered... how can a person live without their soul? Isn't that what makes them them? The spark of life kind of deal?

Technically, it's still there. It's just... detached, or overwhelmed. I don't know the right word for it. But I saw a Tranquil mage come back to himself for a handful of minutes. Far too short. Mostly long enough to beg to die before he became Tranquil again.

[His voice sounds so very tired.]

They function, but as he described it, the world was empty of color, joy, life, everything. They are perpetually caged and have no way to know it or fight against it, except if the bars are lifted for a moment.

God. That's-- that's awful.

( Red's silent for a second, trying to process. )

The only... I once saw a man get his heart ripped out. The Queen, she-- she has this power and I don't know how to describe it, but she can pull out a person's heart, and you can be staring at your own. You can see how pure it is, or any darkness in it. I met him, and he was good and kind, and he had to steal his heart back from her to have his own will back.

It's not the same. He still had emotions and all, but he was caged. His will wasn't his own. And he let her take his heart again to save a friend of mine. I'm... sorry. That it's a thing here. That really, really sucks.

And that isn't strong enough for it, but... I'm not really that good with words.

...Maker.

[That would have to be some sort of blood magic, but it's... beyond anything he's ever heard about. And beyond horrifying. Seeing proof that you're controlled sitting in front of you, with no ability to break free?]

I'm sorry as well. That there are people who can do these things, who feel there's nothing wrong with doing them... There aren't words for it, but I thank you for trying to say them.

It's one of my fondest hopes that we get rid of the knowledge of how to make someone Tranquil, or find a permanent remedy that doesn't last mere moments. Perhaps something can also be found for those taken by your Queen.

Hopefully.

( A little pause. ) She's different, now. I mean... she's tried so hard to come back from everything she did.

( technically she does still rip out hearts sometimes but 1: does Ruby know that? I have no idea. and 2: if she does then she has more sense than to get into a well maybe sometimes its necessary talk right this very moment. Fighting bad guys by removing their hearts? Sometimes necessary. )

But... yeah. I hope anyone who loses themselves is able to be given some kind of freedom again. We deserve to have our mind be our own at least, right?

That's who you meant by the darkness and wanting to find light again?

[So Ruby's capable of giving someone who has hurt a close friend a second chance. That's rare, in his experience, and it definitely makes his opinion of her a positive one.]

And yes. We do. Everyone does. It's a cruelty to take it away, especially when some Tranquil have done nothing wrong. That's not exaggeration or hyperbole. Many were determined to be too weak-willed to be trusted, or were afraid of going through a dangerous, useless, cruel ritualistic testing. Others weren't afraid to say no to a Templar.

Yeah. One of them.

I mean-- I'm not exactly her number one fan, Go Team Regina or anything, but she tries. And... I saw her make a huge sacrifice to try and save everyone. She's not perfect, but I'd have to be delusional to say she wasn't changing.

( Still an ass, but changing for sure. ) And if she is genuinely trying to do better then I want to try and believe in her.

( Not that it is always easy, but even so. If she can't believe in Regina then what hope is there for herself? )

God. ( A slow exhale. ) Where I come from, knights are meant to have honour. Templars are kind of like knights, aren't they? But-- this doesn't sound honourable at all. Knights protect the vulnerable.

Edited 2016-06-06 08:18 (UTC)

[If someone like that can turn around, and even be seen as turning around... Hope is difficult, but sometimes he sees glimmers of it.]

They're knights specifically employed by the Chantry. A few join because they have faith in what the Chantry is doing, but most? The job draws the cruel. Who of that sort wouldn't come running when they hear that there's a group of people they can do anything to and it's not simply accepted, it's praised? They joined in droves and steadily grew bolder. Some Circles were not as bad, but none of them were without cruelties and captivity simply for what someone was born able to do.

Reminds me of the Black Knights, a little. Um, those were the Queen's elite guard at the Dark Palace. Scary, scary guys. I don't know if she was controlling them at the time or if some of them were just like that, but it was pretty terrifying, sometimes.

Well, I won't lie, I do come from a world where magic kind of has... been used as a tool to do some really, really terrible things. I get being scared of magic and thinking that it shouldn't be without limitation, I guess? Or at least, I don't know, an ethics manual, but from an outside perspective Circles don't sound like they were the right way to do anything but hurt people.

Anything can be used as a tool to do terrible things.

We are born mages. We don't have any choice in the matter, not like someone who is wielding a sword can put it down, or someone using the Chantry to preach a message of hate can cease. We are magic. Limiting us for something we cannot stop, we cannot choose, and we cannot help, is simply not right, and not acceptable.

You're a Rifter, something you cannot choose to be and something you cannot help. Should you be limited because of it? Should you be rounded up and held somewhere, as we were? Subjected to extra scrutiny and rules, to the whims of a great many people? You could be unpredictable. You could be lying about every aspect of your life and making up stories of your world and no one here would know it, you could have some ability that can be used to do really, really terrible things.

I think neither group should be limited. But you can make your case for both being limited if you care to.

I was born something, too. And what I was born hurt people, for two reasons — someone tried to limit me to only being human and hid what I was, which backfired horribly, and the other was that when I finally found out I didn't know how to control it. I don't think people should be locked up for being born with gifts, at all. I think Circles sound cruel and messed up.

( She wants to make that clear, because they sound awful and she can't help but remember Belle, remembering hearing she'd been locked in an asylum for the entire duration of the curse. Something in her voice sounds strained for a second before she evens it out. )

But the flipside is that I saw people's heart get ripped out and spent twenty-eight years living the same day in a loop and with no memory of who I was because of magic. A friend of mine was locked in a single room, another spent most of it in a coma. An entire realm of people lost their memories and their loved ones and were trapped under a curse that stripped us of everything we were and banished us from our world, because people with powerful magic were left unchecked.

( So... so what, Ruby? Her exhale is sad, rather than angry. )

Maybe there isn't a way to balance it right, and maybe the only way that limitations could be put in place would end up being tyrannical, I don't know. I think mages here should be free, I do, but honestly... saying nobody should ever have limitations imposed on them is kind of simplistic and damaging too, don't you think? There has to be a balance, I just... I have no idea what it'd be. And finding the balance doesn't mean it wouldn't get screwed up and abused and twisted into the same problem all over again.

( So basically she feels lost. As per usual. )

Has magic done no good in your world? Helped with nothing? Saved nothing?

[There's a little pleading in his voice. It can't be all bad. It has to not be all bad, somehow.]

Here, it can do a great deal of good as well as ill. It is a tool, nothing more. Let there be laws... but let them be for all people, because the point is that we are people too. I'm not saying let us steal and not have that counted as a crime. I'm not asking for us to be above people. I'm simply asking for equality, and I don't believe there's anything wrong with that, nor is it simplistic or damaging.

I am sorry that things were hidden from you. I am sorry that you hurt people. That's a... [He falters for a moment,] It's a heavy burden, and to have done it by accident is even worse. The balance is in information, and in fairness. In acceptance, and treating everyone as people. Only that will work.

Yeah. ( You know that painful note of happiness and sadness that tangles together, sometimes? ) Yeah, it does. True love is the most powerful magic of all, and magic that is rooted in that? In love and in... in light, that can do great things.

( And then you've got werewolves. You've got people like me. You've got monsters.

She doesn't say it, but maybe there's something that betrays her a little. )

And you've got... people who will do whatever it takes to resculpt the world into what they want. They aren't the only people, but they're the ones who strike first, usually, and sometimes you can't kiss a problem better.

( Apparently you can often if you're a Charming, but not always. )

I think equality is the only thing that makes sense. I just... don't know how to do it and keep everyone safe when we're talking about such big things being possible so fast. But maybe that kind of magic just isn't possible here. And maybe that... makes it easier, I don't know.

( She shrugs, even if he can't see it. ) Sorry. It's not like an outsider interfering is actually helpful. My bad.

You're here, and it's little comfort, but as far as I know there's no way heard of yet to get you back. If you want to go back. You can stay an outsider or not. That's up to you.

[There's a fair bit of emotion in her voice and he can't wholly sort it out. What he can do is keep talking, because he can always keep talking.]

People have always tried to resculpt the world into what they want. Mages and non alike. Mages have been on the losing side of that more often than not, because we make nice, easy targets for people to be afraid of, for fearsome stories to be written about. People will continue to resculpt the world. There are always those that seek to rule. That won't change, and there will always be people seeking war. That won't change either.

What can change is those who would put down whole groups for the actions of a few, for things that cannot be controlled, for fear, for how they look or how they're born, or so on. What can change is injustice, and hatred, and prejudice. Anything can be used for good or for ill. What matters is what we make of what we have.

I know. ( Quiet, that; very quiet. She's not sure it's as easy as not wanting to be an outsider. She's been one ever since she had an eccentric grandmother ranting about the dangers of wolves, and since she was run out of town.

There'd been a long stretch back home where she hadn't been an outsider, when she'd still been part of Snow and David's lives, when she'd been useful. They weren't in the Enchanted Forest any more, though, they didn't need an allie against Regina any more, and maybe she had already been feeling disconnected and it was both sides that pulled back, or maybe she just hadn't been useful any more. She really couldn't say.

She wishes that her own emotions came with some kind of meter so she could just read them easily and figure them out. )

That's very very true. The... second world I come from has a long history of non-mages doing terrible things to people, and doing... so much harm. That's a world without magic and it's just as scary. More, sometimes.

( When they stop to think about it, anyway. So often they're trying to stop some villain or other from casting a curse or seeking out some power or generally being shady as hell that there isn't time to be concerned about normal world politics that they can't do anything about anyway. )

Yeah. You're right. ( She does agree, and genuinely, she's just a little mired in her thoughts. ) I, um. I might go. I-- I have some stuff I should probably take care of, but I'm on the same page.

Edited (thinnggss) 2016-06-10 08:06 (UTC)

All right.

[At least they're on the same page, and she's acknowledged that non-magical stuff has just as much risk of going wrong. That's a good start.]

Until next time.

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[ OPEN ] Let No Soul Hunger For Justice: An Inquiry.

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Private cries i lost this tag

But now you have found it!

and with it i have found MY DESTINY

HUZZAH did it come with Peter Dinklage?

aw man no it didn't, my destiny sucks D8

Alas, I am sorry.

judging u 5eva

I'm judging you for editing just for the header.

not as much as I judged myself, honestly

as you should, really.

i will judge myself extra just 4 u

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