therookery | voice; you're everything a big bad wolf could want.

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Ruby Lucas
RECIPIENT: open to anyone with a crystal
WHAT: a discussion of folklore and fairy tales
WHEN: cuurreennttt? current.
WHERE: Skyhold! She just got back from Orlais.
NOTES: Nothing particular comes to mind, potentially dark themes because fairy tales are terrible sometimes? Please chuck warnings in subtitles, if there's anything potentially triggering.

Hey, everyone. This is Ruby Lucas. This is going to possible devolve into discussions of fairy tales and folklore and all that kinda stuff, so if that's not your thing then... fair warning. I don't think there'll be anything urgent in here, Inquisition-wise.

So, basically I just wondered if there are any fairy tales and stories that you're really fond of, or that you connect with. Not just Thedosian ones, either, if you're a rifter I want to know. There's a lot of interesting stuff I've picked up about them, over the years. Some of them have a basis in... fact? Or reality, I guess, though maybe not always our own reality, if that makes sense.

Anyway, this is pretty whimsical. If anyone knows any versions of Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, though, I'd be especially interested. Anything about wolves, generally, to be honest, werewolves included. Kind of my thing. Not... ( a hesitation, and her tone becomes a little more serious: ) Not so much the Boy Who Cried Wolf, though. I've heard a lot about that one.

Um, and for those of you that I've spoken to about that project, it's still in the works. Fear not, it will happen and it will be wicked awesome.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What about those stories particularly interests you?

( out of interest. )

The ones from home? That answer is kind of long-winded and complicated.

( Which isn't to say that she won't say it, but more that she understands if whoever is listening really isn't here for that. )

In terms of the ones from here, though, it's because I'm... part wolf. Or I'm entirely human and entirely a Wolf, it's kind of difficult to explain. I just-- I wanted to understand more about wolves here, I guess.

( she's a wolf.

of course she is. why not. fuck these rifters, they're ridiculous and she doesn't understand what any of them are doing here. )

Well, I'm much more interested in any answer that actually deals with the stories, if I'm being honest.

Gotcha.

( To be fair, that's a much calmer response thing to the Wolf revelation than she's generally used to. Usually there's at least some kind of judgement fact - then again, there is the mercy of crystals at work. )

All right. Well, basically I've lived in two worlds. The first is the world I'm from, and the second is a world a lot of people got banished to by magic. The first world is real, as real as Thedas, but in the other world? They know about us, but only mixed up, warped versions of us. They don't think we're real, but we are. These stories are wrong, but they get some stuff right, here and there.

Are you with me so far?

( so she's a wolf demon from some sort of fucked up version of the fade, that's what she's saying. )

It's a bit more complex than a matter of you being 'real' and the stories being 'wrong'.

Maybe. ( her pause is cautious, and thoughtful. ) I don't know. The inspiration from stories has to come from somewhere, right? But it doesn't change the fact that most of the stories I've heard don't match up to the people who lived them. And I'm definitely real.

( gwenaëlle has apparently decided to just completely ignore every part of what ruby said that unsettled her and, instead, focus on the parts that do make sense to her. )

Of course you are. But that isn't the point, is it?

It's one thing to say a history is wrong. A history can be wrong. A story, inspired by truth or not, is only wrong if it's a failure. You've already said that these are stories. That the people telling them don't believe any grain of truth to where they came from.

So their purpose is not to paint a picture of you. They're something separate, now.

( great, Ruby loves that plan, let's go with that plan please.

She laughs softly, shaking her head a little. )

You make a compelling argument. It's still very, very strange to read about a version of your best friend that makes her be dressed by birds every day and spend her days baking when in reality she was leading an army.

But, interesting you mention the separate part, actually. In the stories it's usually... Red Riding Hood against the Wolf. And... really it's more like Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.

A predator and a girl? I bet we can all guess what that story's about.

( it's sex. she's guessing it's probably about sex.

and other stuff, but aren't they all, really. )

I'd... really rather not go there.

( She knows wow, she knows. )

Technically a lot of versions involve myself or my grandmother being eaten, but both interpretations are pretty terrible.

Imagine what Andraste would say if she could come down and give what-for about all the ways her name gets used.

( -- is the thoroughly unsympathetic answer. )

( excuse you

a good natured, amused, oh my god i can't believe sort of "excuse you," mind. the internal excuse is followed by an intake of breath and an exhale that isn't a laugh but is definitely amused, and only very gently pressed. )

That is... not a good comparison.

Edited 2016-06-26 13:29 (UTC)

Isn't it?

( very archly. )

I would call it rather an excellent example of my point.

Edited 2016-06-26 13:31 (UTC)

I feel like comparing yourself to a holy figure is sacrilegious at the best of times, without being someone who fell through a rift who is also a werewolf and also says the wrong thing almost constantly. I mean, I'm not looking to be struck by lightning any time soon, ideally.

( a deep sigh. )

I'm not suggesting that you and she are alike. What I'm saying is that a great many stories are told about her, and it would be nonsense to think that each and every story - passed by word of mouth, told to children who tell it to their children, stories that live in little places and never travel, or the way some will invoke a lesson where a lesson probably wasn't -

The purpose is the lesson. People teach each other things with stories. And stories told with your name aren't religious lessons, I suppose, but then, lots of religious lessons are just people lessons, aren't they? We tell stories to each other to define the world and our place in it.

( lady v, fucking nerd extraordinaire. )

I was teasing.

( Mmmmmmmmmoostly. But there is part of her that is very aware she is in a religious organisation thing in a world she's not from that thinks she is maybe a demon. So. Yeah. )

The lesson makes sense, but if people start throwing in random articles of clothing or body parts after my name as exclamations I reserve the right to be concerned.

( More seriously: ) The whole purpose of fairy tales is lessons, I think. There's usually a moral wound into them. Sometimes painfully obvious.

Edited (grammars) 2016-06-26 14:56 (UTC)

That sort of thing doesn't generally happen while you're alive. ( brightly. )

Oh, well. Then I have nothing to be worried about.

voice; you're everything a big bad wolf could want.

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