OTA | don't hurt me no more

[matchymatchy]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: yo
RECIPIENT: yall
WHAT: match game set
WHEN: now-ish
WHERE: kirkwall
NOTES: n/a

Inquisition,

I understand there has been a temporary disruption in your administration, [ a light clap ] No matter! We'll muddle through it together.

Ottoline Gardet-Lorier — you may call me Otto — of Tantervale, and it's a pleasure to meet all of you by more than reputation. I'll be summering in Kirkwall this year and lending you my services, that we might find the diplomat inside each of us.

[ ayyy ]

Let's begin! Tell me: What is love?

On a related topic, I must speak immediately with those Rifter elves present.

Comments

[utulien_aure]

[...Ok, what on earth-]

Love is the willingness to put the happiness and well-being of another before that of your own, and to draw joy from the fact of their contentment.

And why would you need to speak with us, lady?

[matchymatchy]

Compassion and empathy. One hopes they extend in both directions.

[ otherwise you might as well get a dog and move to denerim with the blushing bride. ]

But! It concerns a small matter of altruism — charity is among my passions, as it's surely that of the Inquisition. You are aware, Serah, of the many orphans within Kirkwall?

[aenseidhe]

[ uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh???

with deep suspicion: ]

What?

[ as in What do you want and Why are you weird?? ]

[matchymatchy]

A fine question, dear. Are you among our elven friends?

[thunderproof]

❰ raaaaaises brows. ❱

I've been taken for an elf, by dint of my pointed ears. By my own world's standards, though, I'm a half-elf. Do I count?

[matchymatchy]

[ what maniac goes around cutting up perfectly fine elfblooded ears ]

Why, I don't know, darling. How do you consider yourself?

[rowancrowned]

[ politely: ] Madame.

[matchymatchy]

You must forgive me, I am at your disadvantage, Serah — ?

[ name bitch ]

[zombra]

[ Singing: ]

Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

[ Look, someone had to, all right? And she can't trust another Rifter to do it because not all of them are from Earth! ]

[matchymatchy]

What a charming performance. I'm certain you'll do splendidly when called upon.

[ implied: she's not right now. apparently they just hand these out to anyone, the local drunks included — ]

[elegiaque]

Love is the domain of poets, children and dogs.

( u old romantic )

[matchymatchy]

And which are you, my dear?

[ : ) ]

[sangsues]

A condition requiring careful treatment. Lovesickness is not a malady to be made light of.

[matchymatchy]

The heart is so powerful a vessel, but I fear, only when full.

[periastron]

( I'M SORRY DID SOMEONE SOLICIT OPINIONS ABOUT ROMANCE? )

Is love a fancy, or a feeling? No.
It is immortal as immaculate Truth,
‘Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth,
Drops from the stem of life—for it will grow,
In barren regions, where no waters flow,
Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom.

Or, if your fancy is a bit of Billy Shakespeare 'steada Coleridge, you can try on:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.


( BUT IT'S A GOOD THING SHE'S NOT A NERD, RIGHT. ) Something like that, anyway.

[matchymatchy]

Ah! [ what the fuck ] A true scholar of the art, I fear you will outshine my own passion —

[ what the fuck is that accent ]

— But that is the loveliest sort of peril. Where was it you studied, dear?

[untiltheyarent]

Trust, and sacrifice. Willingness to be tender.

[matchymatchy]

One wonders how turtles ever manage. But I don't intend to scorn; that's a perfectly cutting assessment. Tell me, do you see much love for the Inquisition about? A cause asks no shortage of trust and sacrifice.

[earthbones]

The blessing of Mara. She who looks at Arkay's form and does not blush. [If they're going to go there then she's going to go there.]

Why are you singling some of us out in particular?

[matchymatchy]

[ what's a mara, what's an arkay, has anyone told these people you can fuck even when you're flushed

whatever that doesn't matter now ]

The Inquisition once published a number of pamphlets in the South. Featured among them was a lovely portrait of an elven woman — in certain corners she quite came to be the face of Rifters. A kinder one, certainly, than these terrible rumours of demons.

[the_cleric]

Hello, Otto, I am Jester, of Nicodranas, and I am also summering in Kirkwall. And maybe wintering, too!

[And using kind of a fancy hoity-toity lady voice to talk about it. Though neither so hoity or toity as to obscure her actual accent, which is vaguely Eastern European or, in Thedas: foreign.]

It is soooooooo good to meet you. Are you asking about love and elves because you are in love with an elf?

[matchymatchy]

[ time to determine whether it's a) another rifter, or b) someone's child with a stolen crystal. and a weirdly deep voice. either way, best not to give the answer that question would otherwise receive — ]

Alas, I've been widowed some time, and I fear no suitor could hold up against memory. When did you arrive in Kirkwall, dear?

[degenere]

I cannot say what love is, Madame Otto. Nor can anyone.

And what has love to do with diplomacy? Would we, diplomats, not be better served to leave this question to poets of esteem, musicians, artists--why, even our philosophers, Madame Otto, might be better served to answer such a question.

Indeed, those of the Inquisition--as hard-working and simple of faith and straightforward of mind and honest of heart they may be--may truly not possess the words with which to describe that which is so intangible, so complex, so... like a mist.

[matchymatchy]

Are there not sonnets written of the fog over war, the haze between questions, the clouds that part to peace? To elude definition is not to shake pursuit, Serah.

[barded]

I wasn't aware love had so much to do with diplomacy.

[matchymatchy]

No? What is an alliance, but a common love?

[bouclier]

Ugh.

[matchymatchy]

Succinct. Is that an Orlesian accent I detect?

[ from that super long speech right there ]

[in_death_sacrifice]

There once was a time I would have said love was a hopeless delusion... but not anymore. Love is the greatest bond that any two people can ever have.

[matchymatchy]

And what ever did change your mind?

[ like she can't guess. boners are all the same. ]

[ipseite]

What a curious combination of topics, madame.

[matchymatchy]

We may dispense with my own title, Madame, I imagine we'll otherwise be shortly confused.

[ and 'has-been' might summon so many others present ]

[judgemewhole]

[... pardon the Knight-Commander while he runs and hides.]

[castintoflames]

I am listening, my lady. (He doesn't feel worthy of speaking on the topic of love.)

[matchymatchy]

To which part, darling?

[swordproof]

Elves? Or those of elven blood?

[ Are you gonna be super racist, lady -

Also ignoring that love question 900%. ]

[matchymatchy]

You're welcome to sit for a portrait if you'd like, dear; I'm hardly equipped to judge these things for myself. [ being 100% human thx ] You can decide whether you wish it included, after. Does that sound fair?

[sorcerised]

[ Sighs heavily. ]

Do half-elves like myself count in your summons, here?

[matchymatchy]

As with your compatriots, dear, you're welcome to sit for a picture if you'd like.

[ bigger ears: not so good to hear by? write carmilla to investigate. ]

[crowncitizen]

Nice to meet you, ma'am. If you don't mind me asking, what are your services, exactly?

[He's not an elf, so he excludes himself from that request and moves on instead to her question.]

About your question: are you referring to romantic love specifically? I'd define that differently than like, family love or the love you have for your friends.

FOUR HUNDRED YEARS LATER

[matchymatchy]

I'm a matchmaker, darling, and I imagine that whichever answer you give will quite illuminate the distinction. These lines aren't always divided so neatly, are they?

[unshadowing]

[Oh goody, another noble. Just what they need. Honestly, Carver wouldn't bother but A) he's bored and B) her question's... odd, to say the least. Who asks that? Or is she just being a priss and starting a discussion just for the heck of it?]

Why do the rifter elves concern you? And love is... a powerful, overwhelming force that blots out reason and leaves a person vulnerable. It's for those privileged enough to have that luxury.

[matchymatchy]

One might ask you the same question, my dear. Are you an elf? A rifter? Particularly vulnerable?

[ it's perfectly pleasant. ]