OTA | You've Got Mail

[wythersake]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Ya boy
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Letters from Griffon Wing Keep
WHEN: Post-mod plot. Time is vague.
WHERE: Kirkwall.
NOTES: Feel free to say your character has a letter! If you want them to have a letter, but there's no reasonable IC way they'd have one, I'll make one up for you anyway.
 

I’ve got a stack of letters, a scorpion in a jar, and some strongly-worded advice for anyone intending to disturb it.

Wardens Alistair and Anders, Enchanter Averesch, Mage Shivana, Lady Vivas, Mlle... Rey. And whoever the rest of this is, it’s all a bit inky. Find me if you ever want to hear from your friends again — or just wait for them to send another.

I’ll be about. Ask after Isaac.

Comments

[wythersake]

No? Are you due any less than the best?

[ he stands to oblige — doesn’t even bite her, which means he probably deserves a medal. the look he trades above her knuckles has little to do with the smile he’s stapled in place. ]

I was surprised to hear you’d joined us; I imagine there were more pressing engagements. [ like pressing the desperate into service ] Though Kirkwall's more welcoming than the stories. That illness,

[ he has his own (incorrect) suspicions of its cause ]

It bought us some goodwill.

[champions]

The illness was an experience. To be introduced to rifters and have all of them immediately infected by the blue lunacy was not the first impression I had hoped to receive of them, or the Inquisition.

( Even to Isaac she can admit it was alarming, because it fucking was an probably everyone should be weirded out by that, thanks.

Thankfully, who cares about rifters when there are very beautiful scorpions to admire? She holds up the jar, quite content to be open with her admiration. )

What have I done to justify something so beautiful, Isaac? Or what do you want me to do?

[wythersake]

I need the lay of the place.

[ at least they can't be said not to understand each other. ]

Your cousin will stonewall me, [ and he's not about to press gareth. there are lines (there are clearer eyes to borrow) ] But you've done well for yourselves here.

[ the rifters, perhaps, or only a new visibility. matters shift about kirkwall, skyhold. ripple slow to reach the desert.

stasis is safe only so long as others don't upend it on you. ]

[champions]

I do well for myself wherever I go, dear Isaac.

( She will do especially well at sinking a dagger in his back, one day. She looks at the beautiful scorpion, and sighs gently. It's gorgeous, but should she accept it? Just because she knows how to handle a venomous creature doesn't mean Isaac can't be the one to poison her. )

Information, then? I don't wish to bore you with the basics that you already know.

( That would be insulting to both of them, no doubt. And he knows her well enough to know that she knows that this scorpion, this interaction, has a price tag. )

[wythersake]

Opinion, rather.

[ he fishes in a pocket, comes up empty. awkward. this would've been a good moment for dramatic effect. instead it hangs half out of his pocket ]

Where do you see this going? How long do you imagine we'll be tolerated here? if I wanted to tangle anyone's plans, I wouldn't have spent the past year among Darkspawn, Marisol.

But in two hours, the man who blew up this city's own Chantry tried to tell me about his cats, a Rifter spoke to me looking like any other human girl, Gareth's apparently been made archivist of the Gallows — and I'd be a fool to pretend you've no better linking narrative.

[ than his. which is currently somewhere between 'this is where they dump problems' and 'this is all a vivid heatstroke hallucination and the vultures are circling my body overhead' ]

[champions]

( Her smile is wry. She does not trust Isaac, and yet she feels that sometimes they understand each other better than most people do. If only he were a beautiful woman, she supposes. Then she might feel very differently about him. )

In truth? I've no idea. Mages are on borrowed time. We must fight for anything we want to gain, we want to keep. I fear that any moment it might be swept from us, and I might need to fight just to save the lives of those dearest to me.

( Her smile is a sorry one, as she looks to the scorpion. )

Do you ever think that you might need to twist yourself into something terrible, just to save the world from becoming awful?

[wythersake]

[ he's familiar with contortion; she knows. ]

The world twists too.

[ the world. everyone tries to save their own little shred of it. you do what you can to survive — and if you're clever as marisol de vivas, maybe you talk yourself into thinking that means something.

maybe not. if you're clever as marisol de vivas, your words can't be taken without salt. he watches her idly, tries to hold both pieces in his hands: the believer. the knife. ]

What does terror look like?

[champions]

( Her mouth quirks a little at the corner, and she lets her gaze slide from her new friend to the more venomous creature. )

That is a dangerous question, Isaac.

( A dangerous thing to answer. ) A vulnerable woman can never be too careful.

[wythersake]

And where have you hidden her? [ amused. what follows, rather less: ] You don't expect them to honour their promises.

[champions]

( A LAUGH. DELIGHTED. HAHA SHE'S SO CHARMED. HAHA.

No, really, that was sincere amusement. Just because she wouldn't mind if he fell into a pit of darkspawn, preferably heavily armed darkspawn. )

I find expecting most people to stand by their promises can be a dangerous business.