crystal ||

[degenere]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Valentine Nicasus Maxence Mérovée Olivier de Foncé & Kostos Averesch
RECIPIENT: Everybody
WHAT: This is fine
WHEN: Shortly after this

Inquisition. [Very somber, very Orlesian.] Especially members of the Scouting Division. We must demand your attention. Our beloved Head of Scouting, Beleth Ashara, has been tragically and most temporarily laid low by an ill-founded and frankly poorly researched experiment. In these coming weeks, please, join us in offering sincere prayers to Andraste for Beleth’s healing and recovery.

But tragedy must not forestall the work of the Inquisition! Beleth Ashara, eternally professional and aware of the solemn charge of her most important position, has temporarily assigned the duties and tasks of leading the Scouting Division to me: Valentine Nicasus Maxence Mérovée Olivier de Foncé.

[A pause, to properly savor the announcement--and then, as a small but gracious afterthought, he goes on--] And to her other dear friend--or at least, I imagine they must be dear friends, as I am with Beleth, for who better to trust with important work and secrets of the Division than friends--her dear friend, Kostos Averesch. You cannot see his face, of course, but he is quite thrilled.

Don't. [ --misrepresent his expression, which is distinctly not thrilled? address him? talk anymore at all? All of the above, maybe. Also: ] It is very temporary. [ If the Maker has any mercy at all. ] If you acquire information of immediate, war-changing importance, direct it to the remaining division heads. If you have questions about your pay or routine responsibilities, direct them to--him.

[ The one with the long name. He refuses to learn it, or at least to admit he's learned it. ]

[Very helpfully:] Valentine Nicasus Maxence Mérovée Olivier de Foncé. Val. And if you acquire any letters of well-wishing for Beleth Ashara, or come across any woodland creatures that need taming, you might direct either to Averesch, who is followed around by a large raven and might, possibly, be able to speak with animals. And if you acquire any interesting gossip you might direct it to us both.

[ Unseen, and unheard, Kostos' head lowers into his hands in defeat. ]

Above all, do not worry, Inquisition! Do not worry, scouts! We are more than capable of handling all that is asked of us. And we are, of course, treating this temporary but quite important reassignment with all due solemnity. In the name of the Inquisition, and of Beleth Ashara.

Comments

[thunderproof]

I can't apologize enough, I can't —

❰ deep breaths, wringing of hands, wobbly lip, etc ❱

I've made these sorts of grenades before, I don't know what went wrong this time. I've been looking at my recipe trying to figure it out, this will never happen again, I swear.

[degenere]

Ah. The culprit.

Now, that, you cannot truly swear to, yes? For the nature of such things is that it might yet go wrong once more. Unless you stop the making of these 'grenades' entirely.

[thunderproof]

No, I can, I've done this before, I can fix it —

❰ how dare you call into question her aptitude for alchemy, she's totally got this!!! this was an aberration!!! ❱

I used too much Blood Lotus, probably, or it reacted poorly with something else — I'll figure this out. I will.

[degenere]

Can you? Will you?

Or will more be injured by your inexact measurements, your insecure trial venue, your uncertainty, and your lack of faith in even yourself?

[thunderproof]

❰ ...what. that's really intense for having just fucked up a confusion grenade on accident. ❱

No. I'll figure it out. I know that I can do this, I fucked up once but that doesn't mean I can never get it right. I just have to learn from this.

[degenere]

Will you?

[And then, much more cheerfully, and with a measure of unfounded pride:]

Good. That is the true spirit of a scholar, one who will find knowledge. I delivered a similar response once, some time ago, after having set fire to a small shed on the grounds of the great University.

[thunderproof]

❰ a. she knew that was a test, suck it, and b. ur a weirdo and she remembers the dragon discussion ❱

Did you learn? From the fire.

[exequy]

It was effective. [ Praise? Praise. Please don't cry, he can't deal with crying on top of everything else today. ] Just ill-aimed. Perhaps.

[thunderproof]

❰ she's not going to cry.

...publicly. ❱

Is she okay? Is everyone else okay? I've wanted to check, but —

❰ she's felt too guilty. ❱

[exequy]

She is [ in his quiet and relentlessly deadpan tone ] hilarious.

[ He's laughing on the inside.

No, that's not true.

He's recognizing this is something that might be worth laughing about even if he isn't, on the inside. ]

[thunderproof]

❰ not the answer adalia was expecting, truly. ❱

...oh? How so?

❰ for all the kerfuffle, adalia isn't entirely sure what the grenade really did, other than make beleth see enemies where there weren't any. ❱

[exequy]

She has just now given me permission to kill everyone, and reminded me that daggers hurt.

[thunderproof]

Well, she's not wrong about that, I suppose. Are you going to take that permission and run with it? It might be a good way of dealing with some problems. "The Scoutmaster said I could!"

❰ you know how people ramble when they get nervous, complete with wavery voice and slightly breathless tone? that's adalia. ❱

[writteninblood]

Adalia, it was you?

[He is genuinely aggrieved.]

[thunderproof]

❰ WHY ❱

I've been experimenting with confusion grenades as part of my alchemy work. I thought I had a good recipe. It must have been too much — or the fuse was too short, maybe —

[writteninblood]

[Because his sister has been reduced to lacking the sense a fly is born with and some unbearable Orlesian ponce is trying to tell him what to do, and the other Rifters are all flipping their collective shit.]

Please. Please just fix it. [Sorrel knows, objectively, that Adalia is not a healer. But he's under some stress right now and somehow her causing the problem equates in his mind to being able to solve it.] Please.

[thunderproof]

If I could it would be done by now!

❰ you think adalia hasn't gone through all of her notes by now? ❱

I only know so much, and it's easier to cause confusion than to cure it, all I need for the former is Blood Lotus, but —

I only have a pain-deadening compound, nothing that could cure confusion on this scale. I could — and will! — research other native herbs to try to figure something else out, but by the time I learn anything useful she may have recovered already.

[writteninblood]

There's not much to be encouraged about in a may have, Adalia.

[It's muffled-- he has his face in his hands.]

Okay. [clearer now] Okay, just. Forget everything else for now, work on that. Take whatever resources you need, I don't care. I'll ask Adasse to get anything you need, or send him to you if you want an assistant.

[thunderproof]

❰ with genuine sympathy, ❱

Sorrel, I'm not a doctor. The things I make are more... helpful little tricks, recipes followed and improved upon. I may very well do more harm than good trying to figure out how to help Beleth, who's at least being taken care of well.

❰ even more gently, because it would be easy to get the wrong idea from this statement, and she absolutely does not mean it in the worst way it could be taken — ❱

I have an actual job here, and Rifters who need feathers soothed. Any free time I have will go to herbal research for Beleth, but I can't ignore everything else I need to do too.

[sorcerised]

Wait, this was you?

[ He sounds half concerned, half amused. What even, Adalia? ]

What did you actually do?

[thunderproof]

Not purposefully.

❰ although if this had been purposeful it might reflect better on her, really. ❱

I made a confusion grenade. I thought it would be safe to use, and Beleth needed to train some people, so I offered to let her have it. It... didn't detonate as designed.

[sorcerised]

It blew up in her face.

[ Literally, he assumes. ]

Well, that's unfortunate. Is there anything we can do? Perhaps we ought to find a cleric of some kind.

[thunderproof]

Gods, if they had clerics here this would be so much easier. The closest thing I can think of is a Spirit Healer, and I don't know if they could fix confusion on this scale.

❰ like. the detonation fucked up. but the confusion part was apparently totally perfect. if it wasn't so much of a problem currently adalia would be very proud. ❱

I'm doing as much research as I can, but between smoothing ruffled Rifter feathers and doing my actual job, I don't know that I'll be able to find anything before the effect naturally wears off.

[sorcerised]

Well, how long is it supposed to last?

[ Key words: supposed to. Maybe if we're lucky it'll sort itself out before Messr. Valentine has time to say all his names again. ]

Perhaps a different grenade could do something. A clarity grenade, if there is such a thing. Do you want help with research?

[thunderproof]

...well, we're already a bit beyond when I had intended it to wear off.

❰ it was really good at its job. shame the same could not be said for adalia. ❱

I don't think I've heard of a clarity grenade before, but all that means is we get naming rights if we figure out how to make one. Help with research would be wonderful.