002.

[sangsues]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Etienne Guerinet Beaumanoir
RECIPIENT: everyone (sorry)
WHAT: whats all this
WHEN: post-proposal etc
WHERE: the walliest kirk
NOTES: Orlesians

( A quiet clearing of the throat; one can naturally assume it is a very beautiful clearing of the throat, done by a very beautiful man. )

This matter of the phylacteries for rifters… it seems sensible. If they are such a valuable resource to the Inquisition, the closing of rifts, and so on, being able to find said resource if a rival power were to try and overpower them and abscond with them makes sense, I think. For their own safety, for our own safety. If Corypheus and his forces were, for example, to make an attack on a party closing a rift and kidnap those rifters for nefarious purposes, it would be better for all if we were able to find them as quickly as possible. The phylacteries are an established way of doing just this, no?

By all means, if you wish to see the world end, protest. Even if this is not your world, though, I think we can all agree that you are currently in it. It’s fate is not entirely irrelevant to you.

Comments

[thunderproof]

I would prefer to be free, on all counts. If a consequence of that is danger from the Venatori, then at least I chose that.

[sangsues]

And if the consequence is lending the power of your link with the Fade to the Venatori because you captured by them and the trail is hard to follow, is that something the rest of us should suffer?

[thunderproof]

Aren't individual anchors very weak? I'm sure the Inquisition would find me before anything too terrible could be done with mine on its own.

[sangsues]

Groups of rifters can and have been taken, for purposes of experimentation. It isn't always a matter of individual anchors.

[thunderproof]

❰ murder dad called her out and now she has to stop answering, much as it pains her. but how to end this conversation without appearing to cede the point. HMM. ❱

I have no interest in debating the matter further. Consider this an end to my part in the discussion.

private ;

[aenseidhe]

Save your debates, Adalia. [ Iorveth chimes in, voice a calm thing, but with certainty to it. ]

These men have no means to dismiss this policy, and Skyhold watches this network. The less they know of the arguments we bring, the less time they'll have prepared to counter them.

You've every right to be angry, but we must play our cards close if we're to do better than the mages did in their negotiations.

perma-private ;

[thunderproof]

❰ oops, caught out by dad — ❱

I haven't been making threats, at least.

❰ said in that tone children use when they know they've done something wrong but they haven't done the worst thing they could do. ❱

It's... less anger than I just want everyone to shut up and stop poking at the hornet's nest. So many of the others are just making us look worse.

❰ which is not what iorveth was concerned with, so: ❱

I'll stop.

[aenseidhe]

[ oh no, bae, it's okay, he won't pull a thranduil this time. in fact, there's a soft laugh he lets out before answering her. ]

You aren't in trouble, it's alright. I've been guilty of it already.

[ he was the first one to be guilty of it, stabbing an innocent message board on the crystals. woops. ]

They'll speak whether they have valid points or not, because they're humans that love the sound of their own voices. The privileged love nothing more than telling the downtrodden to stop complaining.

You're right in your want to shut them up, and were we in my home, I'd be doing it with you. It just doesn't suit our needs at the moment.

[ imagine yourself a head pat here, booboo. ]

[thunderproof]

❰ adalia's sitting in her room, moping, feeling very Judged despite iorveth's claim she's not in trouble — and then he speaks of needs and she perks up, looking down at her crystal with excitement. ❱

What are our needs? Is there a plan?

❰ please let there be a plan. adalia would rather not die fighting this, but she will if she has to, and that would suck a whole lot. ❱

[aenseidhe]

Political maneuvers and clever arguments that have not already been publicly voiced.

[ so many good ones have already been aired, and made useless to them now. ] All that's been spread on the crystals already, even solid plans, have to be considered null. The Inquisition will have already heard them and had time to prepare to counter them.

[ be they rebellion plans, escape theories, or simple arguments against the policy. they have as long as they delay the negotiations to prepare to combat them. ]

I've some thoughts, but I'd rather not voice them over the crystals, even private. Thranduil's doubtless thought of more. You may want to approach him about it in person.

[thunderproof]

Oh, fuck him.

❰ is the incredibly uncharitable, petty first thing out of adalia's mouth. but he is gwenaëlle's husband, and a man in a position of power here, who can coordinate all the rifters of the inquisition. after a moment she breathes a sigh and nods. ❱

I'll talk to him. Maybe this time he won't all but call me worthless! We can all have dreams, mm?

[aenseidhe]

[ blink. blink. uh? ]

I take it you've had a falling out?

[ when... did Thranduil call her worthless? he can't imagine the man calling adalia that, though he hasn't really seen them interact much. and... well, adalia does tend to love to mercilessly push buttons. he doubts he'd have truly meant that, but who knows. ]

I can talk to him instead, if you like. Or punch him.

[thunderproof]

Well, you know, when someone implies that your age means you know nothing, and threatens you, and rails about being seven thousand years old and a king, as if that should mean anything to you at all —

❰ there's bound to be some repercussions, aren't there. there's an interested noise at the idea of punching thranduil, and adalia smiles. ❱

The idea is tempting. But it doesn't really speak to my maturity if I take you up on that, does it.

❰ blast her contrarian nature for needing to prove the asshole wrong. ❱

No, I'll talk to him. If nothing else I have to prove I'm better than him.

[aenseidhe]

Ah, so that was you we heard him screeching at through the hallways.

[ The realization hits him with a small laughing fit. Oh, that was a pretty priceless moment, and he can understand the girl's offense taken from it. But there's much that comes with years the young don't quite understand. For one, angry old men with blue balls forced to abandon their hot wives to solve a diplomatic crisis. 'Too old for this shit' is a concept you really have to reach that too old part to grasp. ]

A word of advice. Adalia, sweet and caring and clever Adalia. [ he would be cupping her cheeks right now if he were there. ] Old age does not cultivate greater patience. It erodes one's tolerance for other people. Especially when threats of city-wide revolution interrupt their sex life.

[ That last bit is some pretty important context. In truth, Adalia is painfully young, and both her headstrong attitude and unwillingness to concede speak to that, but she's still just a child. It's difficult to blame Thranduil when he's a soul so used to rightfully having no question to his judgments, but at the same time, even if Adalia would take insult to it, she's but a child. A wealth more patience is required when speaking of serious matters with her, and Thranduil ought to know that. But, she'll also get over it. If not in a few days, then few decades. ]

Gwenaelle and I badgered him into intoxication last night to shut him up about political maneuvers. He's likely in much better spirits now.

[thunderproof]

❰ it's more annoying than anyone can possibly know — or remember, probably, given they're all so much older, the bastards — so much more annoying than any of them can remember, to be spoken to in this tone, with such patience and patronizing condescension. it's even more annoying to know that reacting based on that annoyance will just reinforce their ideas of her youth and what it means. it takes adalia a few moments to wrangle her frustration down so that she doesn't snap, and it occurs to her that she's probably grown more in thedas in a few months than she ever could have in toril.

it is not really a comforting thought. ❱

You would think a seven thousand year old king would have better control of his baser urges, ❰ is all she's going to say about that, biting her lip against the more petty "was he interrupted with his head between gwen's legs, she tells me he's fond of that". she doesn't really want to think about how much she knows of thranduil's sex life, okay. ❱

Would that he had directed his frustration onto someone more deserving, it might actually make me give a damn about his spirits and what state they're in.

❰ she's not whining, or pouting, or being in any way a child. however — ❱

All I did was ask if he had a plan.

❰ her tone is slightly higher-pitched. definitely not whining, though. ❱

[aenseidhe]

I would not especially, no. [ For a seven thousand year old king to get less annoyed with interruption, nah. He's downgraded from legendary king of a proud and strong nation to glorified babysitter for most all the rifters, taking the brunt of this planning for battling the policy. Iorveth's surprised no one'd been slapped off the side of the docks yet. ] Least of all in being a king - he likely hasn't had his words questioned in at least two of those millenniums.

[ For good reason - his nation and people are far more prosperous and stable than any other elf here can claim of their own. no real idea of how long Thranduil's been a king, but he seems well versed in it enough that it's likely been a good, long time. and even still, the outburst he gave was much kinder than ones Iorveth's made towards others when only a unit commander, rather than a lord.

But he was never known for being a nice person to begin with. Thranduil at least makes attempts at it most days. ]

I'm sure he'll come around. He has much on his plate right now. Give him time. [ Things Iorveth and Gwen have been trying to assist with, and still more have come together to aid it, so hopefully he'll not start pulling out his pretty, pretty hair. ]

In the mean time, we can take entertainment value from his struggles. Where are you now?

[thunderproof]

❰ why on the gods' green earth should she have to give him time, when he's the one who threatened her! it's not fair!!!

it is, as with most things in adalia's life, more frustrating than she could possibly articulate to be of an age that she knows her feelings mean nothing, the world isn't fair, and she needs to get over herself, and simultaneously be so driven to rail against these facts. as if she could change anything, as if anyone cares what she wants or what bothers her or if she's happy —

those feelings, too, are as much due to adolescent blubbering as they are anything real. but it's so easy to be caught up in them, and to want to be caught up in them. it's easier to be petulant and righteously offended than it is to swallow her pride and keep her head down when she has to. she deserves better, doesn't she? she deserves more — more respect, more consideration, more attention. she's fighting so hard to be reasonable, to be useful, she deserves to have her efforts acknowledged.

with another deep sigh, adalia flops her head into her arms and huffs. ❱

The office. I think I've found something interesting, but concentrating has been proving difficult.

[aenseidhe]

[ because, dear, you are not the only person on the earth, and life isn’t fair.

Many people deserve many things, and iorveth will be the first to tell her not even half of people get them. Not even a quarter. Seldom few, because the world is cruel. Such is reality. She’s all deep sighs and petulance, and Iorveth waits it out quietly, until she cedes and tells him something new.

Ah. Discoveries. ]

Which office? There are many of them. [ and he’s snooped through several. ]

[thunderproof]

The Elven Artifacts project office. I work here.

❰ because she's a fine, upstanding employee of the inquisition, and she's trying to be a fine, upstanding citizen of thedas, even if she thinks it's completely ridiculous in so many ways. and okay, look, she doesn't do good things for a reward, but gosh, one would be nice sometimes, wouldn't it? some kind of break, or acknowledgment, or something.

...anyway. ❱

I think there may be an elven temple somewhere that we haven't found... I mean, I'm sure there are many, but there are some things that were found in one we have excavated that point to a different temple. Maybe. If I'm understanding all this right.

[aenseidhe]

[ ah, Iorveth's part of that project, so he knows the office she means, and sets off in that direction. ]

I'll help you look over it. See you shortly.