therookery | weighed and measured in kind

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Thranduil
RECIPIENT: A L L
WHAT: Please don't riot about the phylacteries. (yet)
WHEN: Post-negotiations.
WHERE: Gallows!
NOTES: After this. Specifically, after Iorveth does a property damage and before anyone else can try that.

[ thranduil's voice is tight, if still somehow pleasant: ]

I understand that there are a great number of questions and concerns at the moment regarding the Inquisition's proposed policy of phylacteries for Rifters.

If there are concerns that anyone would wish to make known through official channels, the Research Division has been appointed to handle the research of this new, proposed policy. [ very pointed stressing. ] My office is where it has always been, and any concerns should be turned into the box reserved for correspondence of that nature.

I would remind all Rifters that we are yet considered a single unit. [ remember the curfew? ] That poor behavior will affect all of us- indeed, anyone currently afflicted with a Shard. I would advise them that this is never as true as it is now, and that consequences for actions taken in the heat of the moment are the same as those made when rational.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He bites back something along the lines of 'I'm sure the mage has a name', because Thranduil's trying to help. He's a Rifter, too. He's got skin in the game. Don't get snippy. Deep breath.]

I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't think that's something you can actually decide if push comes to shove.

An interesting feature of a little glass vial is that it oft breaks easily under the heel of a boot.

...Well, okay, yeah, when you put it really literally like that, then yeah.

I--it's good to know you have our backs. We'll figure out what to do with whatever we find.

Oh, um, so uhhhh. Christine also wants to be there. And she wants everything in writing, which, that might be less than advisable, depending. She's very um. Overprotective and paranoid, but I don't blame her for it. It's better to just let her sit in and ask all the smart healer questions she needs to.

Of course. I am a Rifter, it is not as if--

Edited 2018-05-10 22:44 (UTC)

Who else did you speak of this with.

I literally said out in the open for everyone to hear that I'd volunteer for this shit. That part's not private. People are gonna react to that! It's not like I'm shouting 'we're gonna fuck up these test results' to the heavens, dude, chill.

Also, she's my girlfriend that I live with. Of course we were gonna have to talk about it in greater detail.

This does not speak well of your ability to be discreet.

[ at least he hadn't mentioned the mage willing to make phylacteries by name. ]

I understand your feelings and hers. While I appreciate your willingness to assist, considering her concern, I fear I must decline your help in this.

Edited 2018-05-10 22:56 (UTC)

Your levelheadness about the matter did a great deal to soothe others. As myself and as a division head, I sincerely thank you for that.

I--I mean, I...appreciate...the thanks? But I don't see why having someone that gives a shit about me if things go sideways means I'm not, what, suited for this. I've volunteered for potentially dangerous experiments involving the shards before. Me volunteering for this doesn't throw up any weird red flags. And, honestly, I don't like the idea of other people maybe getting hurt about it.

I mean I know you and whoever else involved is gonna make sure nobody gets hurt, but I--th- wh- That's not the point.

...All right, okay, okay, all right, so, to switch gears then, say it's just you, cuz you said there were two of us, I gotta assume that other person's you. Obviously to get this to all work right, whoever does the tests is gonna have to be amenable to our cause. That's gonna be suspect, right?

Christine is a mage who is against the creation of phylacteries. Clearly, there is a mage among those here who is willing and able to make them.

Could Christine resist the urge to encourage [ in all the different forms encouragement might take ] this mage to no longer make phylacteries? And if she let this secret slip to someone who wants to hurt mages who collaborated with Templars in the past?

Public support is very different from private.

You're taking me off the mission [because that's kind of what it is, a secret mission to skew results in their favor] because my girlfriend is a security risk?

...

Is...I mean is there I way I can help with all this? This, not the levelheadedness, keeping people from rioting in the streets and getting us locked up or killed thing.

Could you blame me for my caution, with how delighted everyone seems to be to publicly announce their intentions to commit treason?

[ of which church was not one, so. five for you, church.

he considers. ]

No. If I do, what are the matters you feel secure keeping to yourself and not sharing?

I would like to point out that I didn't even suggest plans to potentially skew results to my girlfriend until after she started talking about not agreeing to anything unless it was all in writing like she suddenly turned into a lawyer and wanted to be there herself when the testing was happening to me. I was trying to put her mind at ease. I'm not talking it up behind your back about how yeah, I'm gonna get my blood drawn and we're gonna fuck with stuff, nobody has to worry about it.

I don't go blabbing everyone's personal business when I learn it, and I don't even share my own secrets save for those who I trust above all else.

Who do you trust above all else?

Unless you write her directly and tell her to stand down--phrasing it as for my own safety would probably work best--then anything I do on the testing side of things, you're gonna have to have her involved.

And I understand if that's more effort involved than it's ultimately worth. Still gonna be kinda pissy about it, though.

You mentioned to her that it was a secret research project, and her first inclination was to request written documentation of it.

I trust myself.

Am I to assume that she will carry on and discuss it in public unless ordered otherwise?

You are real damn picky with your wording, you know that? [yes it's called secrecy and espionage and diplomacy and leadership maybe you should try thinking about your words first church]

It's implied that sabotage is kind of a secret thing you don't talk about. She wasn't saying oh write down all the troublesome illegal shit you're doing, she wanted to know what, in this particular thing I was volunteering for, was going to be done to me and what would happen if a phylactery actually got made, shit like that. Which could always be written and, y'know, not be truthful.

Look, listen, I don't know what you want; you should assume she isn't going to talk about secret shit in public at all. You're the one that's afraid she's gonna blab about everything. I'm saying that if I'm gonna be involved in this testing, she's gonna be involved in it, because she is my supporting and concerned girlfriend, unless you specifically tell her that it's best she not be involved in it.

Don't go putting words in my fucking mouth.

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