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?

[aenseidhe]

[ uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh???

with deep suspicion: ]

What?

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

[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?

[rowancrowned]

[ politely: ] Madame.

[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! ]

[elegiaque]

Love is the domain of poets, children and dogs.

( u old romantic )

[sangsues]

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

[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.

[untiltheyarent]

Trust, and sacrifice. Willingness to be tender.

[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?

[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?

[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.

[barded]

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

[bouclier]

Ugh.

[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.

[ipseite]

What a curious combination of topics, madame.

[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.)

[swordproof]

Elves? Or those of elven blood?

[ Are you gonna be super racist, lady -

Also ignoring that love question 900%. ]

[sorcerised]

[ Sighs heavily. ]

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

[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.

[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.