Sending Crystals - Open

[mythalenaste]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Pel
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: When you have to name a thing and don't have a name for the thing
WHEN: Not during the Winter Palace events
WHERE: Skyhold + pretty much everywhere
NOTES: Baby names.

So I'm having a baby. And it's not really working thinking of names for baby boys that I like. Girls are easier, I don't know why. So. If you like a boys' name, tell me what it is. My friend Alistair is here with me, and if he can make a joke about the name you suggest--

A mean joke, [Alistair interjects in the background.]

--a mean joke, it's rejected automatically. So. Think of it like a game. If you can stump him, you get a prize.

Comments

[arcaneadvisor]

Might I ask what exactly qualifies Alistair?

[Alistair you can tell her privately if you want but that remark is drier than the Western Approach at the height of summer.]

[byblow]

[ His voice puffs up to match his unseen shoulders, and his accent shifts toward the nobler end of his range—all overdone, because he's joking. ]

The finest education the Chantry provides, particularly in the subject of how children belittle one another. I took lessons on it every day for years.

[mythalenaste]

Aww. [Without even looking up from something she's writing, Pel reaches out and pets Alistair on the head.]

[byblow]

[ He snorts and ducks his head away from it, and says aside: ] Don't aww me. I was as good at it as any of them.

[mythalenaste]

[Instead of stopping, she pets his head even harder, still without looking up from her writing, leaning toward him to try to chase him as he ducks away.]

[arcaneadvisor]

[And now she knows where Kieran gets that particular streak from. Good to know it's not her.]

I suppose there had to be one thing the Chantry taught well. [Apply salve directly to burn various Mothers/Sisters/concerned citizens etc.] Is this before or after the long skirts part?

[justice_is_blond]

I feel the skirts were one of the best things the Chantry came up with. Men running in armor and a skirt? They trip a great deal. It's exceedingly useful.

[arcaneadvisor]

What else did they come up with that would be enough to call that in particular 'one of the best things'? [Actually that's genuine interest because Morrigan doesn't really know about the internal Chantry workings so, y'know, your time to shine here.] I do recall it rather hampering their attempts to run from the abominations and even walking corpses.

[justice_is_blond]

[He reminds himself to say that doesn't strike him as much of a problem before speaking.]

Spreading the Chant isn't a bad thing. They may twist it to include subjugation, but it's not bad in itself. They've... mm. They tend to produce excellent candles since they use them so often?

[He's not the biggest fan of the Chantry.]

I'd mention something about them sheltering and raising orphans and such but I don't think said orphans are given much choice about their futures and I'm not a fan of lack of choice.

[arcaneadvisor]

I believe the Dalish might beg to differ. As would the Chasind. When it comes to candles, who else has such need for them - if mages were not taught to leap at the sight of their own shadows lest it turn into a shade then there are spells that burn far better and more safely. [You can knock over a candle but can you knock over a spell? No. No you can't. Nil points Chantry biddies.]

I would sooner be left for the wolves. Or my mother. And you have met my mother.

[Are they having a) a civil conversation and b) one where she's joking? Maybe the Chantry is bringing them together after all.]

[justice_is_blond]

I have.

[...she sounds... No. She can't be joking. Except he thinks she is, and his voice warms a little in response.]

I hear wolves can actually take in lost children and raise them fairly well, minus the whole able-to-talk thing or lack of awareness when it comes to the importance of baths. Let's put wolves as a positive, Chantry as a negative.

I suppose we're left with putting skirts on men in armor. Maybe they've only the one after all. And children belittling each other. A pity that one of our oldest institutions produces so little.

[arcaneadvisor]

If you are exceptionally lucky, the wolves might have a river where they go to drink. Racing through it would do more than a great many in a village would see in a year.

All involved in the Chantry - the Mothers, the Sisters, the Templars, the Mages - such a wonder there is any cloth left for the rest of the world. Do they teach that as well? [Okay so the Inquisition is maybe a bit more of a 'no one seems to mind if you have sideboob or one or even both titties out' affair but if she asked Alistair this his face might explode.

Kieran needs a not!dad for however many years Alistair has before the taintshake curdles.]

When one looks inward for so long, small wonder nothing it begins to consume itself.

[justice_is_blond]

Maker, especially in Fereldan.

[He's no more fond of Orlais, but Fereldan is entirely mud and muck.]

I did learn how to sew my so-pretty robes in the Circle, so yes. Apparently there's one more benefit to be found after all. Probably countered by that aforementioned self-consumption that does seem to happen.

[arcaneadvisor]

There are times that I do prefer the perfumes of Orlais than the dung of Denerim. Rare though they may be.

I had a wonder - did you have the feathers then? Was that an attempt at freedom? Enough and so high you might take flight?

[Were there birds by Lake Calenhad she can't remember. Probably. Probably eating corpses about somewhere because birds gonna bird.]

[justice_is_blond]

Fur or feathers, whatever embellishments were warm and it was an added boon if they had something magical to them. But you forget who you're speaking with on the other question. Everything was an attempt at freedom. Everything was a dream of flight.