therookery | 001.

FORM: Crystal! Or action, if you happen to be around Kirkwall's Lowtown.
SENDER: Arohaerd
RECIPIENT: Everyone with a crystal
WHAT: Aro has itchy feet and wants some advice.
WHEN: Today, mid-morning
WHERE: Lowtown, Kirkwall
NOTES: Crystal or action welcome! Please add any warnings to thread headers.

Hello, everyone. I'm Aro. I know some of you already, I'm sure, from the unfortunate snowbound arrival last month, and then the...incident with that mine, and now some more new faces have arrived too! Anyway.

I'm sure there's many more of you that I don't know. I know that some of you are from this world, and some of you are from others, as I am, but...we're all here, in this city, which is ruled by something called the Inquisition, as far as I can tell, and. Well.

[ A deep breath, while he thinks very carefully about how to word this. ]

While I'm grateful for the hospitality, and please don't think I'm not. There must be more to this place, this world, than Kirkwall. Getting out to see Amaranthine was brilliant, even though we were there to bring the others back. Don't any of the rest of you want to explore? We can go together, make a quest out of it!

And those of you who live here, or who've been here for a while, tell me of the other lands, and cities, and places of this world. Tell me where you like, tell me where I should visit. I just need to know where to start.

[ If you happen to be in Kirkwall to hear this in person, Aro will be the young half-elf sitting on a wall by the side of the road, with a flute dangling from his fingertips. He's very pale and blond, hair short enough for the slightly pointed tips of his ears to show.

Both before and after the broadcast, he'll be seen playing the flute, sounding out a variety of folk songs from his own world. They're strange to people here, but it all sounds like home to Aro. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Side-eyes this answer. That's not exactly what he asked. She must work directly for them. He closes his hand around it's awful green shard. ]

I haven't said I'll work for the Inquisition. [ He says, with a slight edge to his voice. ] I didn't choose to come here. I don't do this, I don't live inside stone walls or answer to a commander. I'm not a soldier.

[ Just, you know. For the avoidance of doubt. ]

I'm a sorcerer. In my world I travel widely, and use my skill to help protect people when they need it. I'd do the same here, of course, but I'd do better on the road than in a city in any case.

A commendable goal. You will find it difficult without our aid.

Your hand. The mark, no? Those who bear it do not congregate here without purpose. The farther you are from others so afflicted, the more it will pain you. I am told that it lessens, when one travels in sufficient company.

But as you say, you are not a soldier — and we do not order civilians into danger.

The mark is...I worry about the mark.

[ There's no sense in pretending he doesn't. Even talking about it makes him more aware of it, and he flexes his fingers around it. ]

It's no kind of magic I know of, and I don't enjoy the pain. But you can't get rid of it, can you? No one here can, from what I've seen, so staying here wouldn't actually solve that problem. Who's to say that someone else out there could not take it away completely, and we don't know because we've never found them? The Inquisition isn't everywhere in this world, are they?

Through all the south. Through all the south, and researching these marks the better part of three years.

Our aims align: You wish a cure, you wish to travel. We wish a cure, and we need travel to seek it. To journey with the Inquisition is to see that you are not crippled in the effort. The Venatori seek you also; you would not care for their hospitality.

It is a clever thing, to be cautious, no? It is cleverer to gauge one's circumstance.

Edited 2018-04-30 00:53 (UTC)

[ Aro sighs.

She's not wrong. It's smart to be cautious. More than that, it's wise to be cautious. Aro would be more cautious, undoubtedly, if he felt like he had more of a say in any of this. ]

I've never been very good at following orders.

[ Or going where he's sent. Or subscribing to authority of any kind, really. ]

How do you even know you want me? I'm just another rifter to you, it's not like there aren't many of us.

Good. We do not require blind followers,

[ they could do with a few more. but appearances. ]

There are not many of you. Perhaps thirty, in all the world. We work toward an end to the Rifts — if you are not a piece of that puzzle, you are still another victim of it; there is much we lack, but we are not in the habit of denying aid.

[ Aid? Is that what they're calling it? ]

I'm sorry; perhaps I have this all wrong. I was under the impression it was our help you wanted?

For the record, I'm not opposed to helping anyone at all. What I dislike is the idea that I'm supposed to stay here until I have someone's permission to leave, and even then it'll only be because they want me to do something somewhere else.

We do. But regardless of whether it is given, we feed and house you. Offer your our protection, the fruits of our research. Were it I —

[ in a strange world, at the mercy of strangers ]

— I should wish to level that ground. To make need into a mutual matter, no? To assist is to create a contract out of charity.

[ and one of those always has greater negotiating power. ]

Like or dislike it as you may; I cannot cut the anchor from you. Until that day, this is your means to travel. To propose your own ventures, to benefit of ours.

I don't think there's any point in pretending we're on equal ground when we aren't.

[ And Aro dislikes her attitude. The way she describes makes him feel all the stronger that his freedom has been limited, through no fault of his own. ]

If you're ever in the position we are, I should hope you find yourself in a place where they don't require your service in exchange for your freedom. I never asked for the Inquisition's protection, and I'm more than happy to take care of myself as I've always done.

[ dryly, ]

I wish you every fortune of it.

[ ultimately, it's not the inquisition that's keeping him here. but there's no point in continuing to speak when that won't be heard. pragmatism is ever a bitter taste for some. ]

[ Sighs. ]

Yes, I'm sure you do.

Does that mean you don't have a travel recommendation for me?

You'd not care for my reasons of it.

Try me. Perhaps I would.

The Anderfels. A dire country to make home of in best times, and these far from it. The enemy has grown entrenched, we are unlike to soon unseat them; may only be grateful the land lacks much in resource.

They've need of us, and we can little give it. Were I to be turned out from our ranks tomorrow —

[ and the boyfriend somehow ever agreed to this nonsense, ]

— It is there I should turn my attentions.

[ Well now, that's interesting. He doesn't sound at all off-put; rather, he sounds curious. ]

Yes, I see very well. But if that is the case, then may I ask why you are not there now? If that is the place you believe most needs help, and you believe you could give it.

Why wait for someone to order you that you can?

Because one woman with a sword does less than one with allies.

It has begun there. It will not end there — Nevarra is unstable. Orlais fares little better. At times we must cut off a limb to save a life.

[ Sure, that sounds like a tenet to live by. ]

At times, yes, but if you could save the limb you would. Anyone would.

Is that what the Inquisition is doing with Nevarra, and Orlais? Cutting off its limbs?

[ her tone shifts, sudden and cold — ]

What do you imagine this world is to you?

[ Her tone makes him sigh. ]

A place I'm not welcome. [ To put it mildly. ] If I could, I'd have gone home already.

001.

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