[ Crystals ] | Reach for the stars!!

[limier]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Wren Coupe
RECIPIENT: All y'all
WHAT: Vital questions
WHEN: Now-ish
WHERE: Near, far, wherever you are
NOTES: There will be prizes.

Indulge me: The best advice you have received. Explain why, if you choose.

Comments

[circleprodigy]

'The real dangers of the Fade are preconceptions...careless trust...pride. Keep your wits about you, mage. True tests never end.'

[limier]

We'd all do well to learn as much. [ life is long, less so for the unwary. one needn't touch the fade to suffer that much. ] Was that from an Enchanter?

[ she's seldom known them to call each other mage, but. the advice would be peculiar to come from templar or spirit —

a book, perhaps, ]

[circleprodigy]

It was from a pride demon, as I passed my Harrowing. Ironic, isn't it?

[limier]

[ the faint huff of something not quite amusement, ]

Of course it checked its own name. Quite the introduction to demons; you must have acquitted yourself well.

[ is she poking at pride there, ok just a little, but it's well-meant ]

[circleprodigy]

I did, but it was the rude awakening that I needed. I was very much a star pupil, a teacher's pet. Were it not for that very effective lesson, pride might indeed have led to my downfall...if not in a literal fashion, then by other means.

[limier]

It was once posited to me that the Order's recruits be put to a similar test. Impractical, of course, utterly inactionable —

[ few lieutenants took courwin's particular approach to the problem of resistance, and perhaps their knights sleep easier for it. perhaps they don't know the names and habits of their demons,

but she would not undo her training for it. ]

— But the bitterer the reflection, the more it demands view. Have any of the creatures troubled you since?

[circleprodigy]

An interesting idea, nonetheless.

[If templars faced such a trial, they would understand all the better what mages go through. But she knows better than to expect such an idea to come to fruition.]

But no, not so directly. I would be a fool to believe it that one encounter would make me immune to further temptation, but so far I have kept that lesson close to my heart.

[limier]

Thank you for telling me of it. [ harrowings are at once intensely private, and necessarily public affairs. she'd not blame the girl to avoid revisiting it now. ] I suppose I ought to recommend penitence and prayer as reminders of humility. But such activities look more inward than outward, no?

[ later that evening, a runner will deliver a prize; unsigned, and unexplained. congratulation.

a small redirection, a joke of sorts: ]

Whenever I find myself growing too full of myself, I find it helps to take a walk across muddy ground. Inevitably, I fall upon my ass — and from there it's substantially more difficult to take myself seriously.

[ oh but she manages ]

[circleprodigy]

[That prize will have a place of honor on one of her walls, to be sure. That last part provokes a soft, warm chuckle from Inessa, genuinely amused.]

That would do it, I agree. For myself, a trip to the rookery usually cures such moments. It is difficult for pride to flourish when a griffon refuses to accept she is not a lap creature and attempts to use mine.

[limier]

Ah, yes. Our majestic creatures of legend — I recently sent some drawings to a friend, he expressed fondness of the one-winged beast. You have bonded with one?

[circleprodigy]

Yes. Maja has named her Potato. I'm attempting to have her respond to another name -any other name- but my attempt has not met with success so far.

[limier]

Why not Potato? [ there's the crinkle of a smile in her voice, ] A noble plant. Indispensable.

[circleprodigy]

[Siiiigh.]

But not very dignified. These are the first griffons to exist in ages. They should have heroic names.

[limier]

Mothers name children, not heroes. Every name begins as a name; what is heroic is that which comes after. She will win her own deeds.

[circleprodigy]

Would you take a hero seriously whose name was Burp or Flea?

...yes, those were some of the other choices.

[limier]

It is occasionally to one's advantage to not be taken so.

[circleprodigy]

Yes, but a griffon? I don't want to be responsible for the slaughter that would ensue should they not be taken seriously.

[limier]

Horses and dogs kill men every day. It has never stopped them being called any manner of thing.

Be at peace with your Potato. The history books might amend it later.

[circleprodigy]

I'll try.

...would you like to meet her?

[limier]

[ being, you know, a very dignified middle-aged woman, she doesn't squeal or anything at the prospect, but,

but there's a smile to her voice when she answers, ]

I should like that very much.

[ arnault's going to be so fucking jealous ]