pockets full of stones

[rowancrowned]

FORM: Sending crystal!
SENDER: Thranduil
RECIPIENT: All the Rifters. (Just the Rifters.)
WHAT: Now that the Tourney's done... 
WHEN: The day after everyone returns for the tourney. 
WHERE: Kirkwall!
NOTES: The stunning next step to the Rifter Phylactery p...lot?

I hope we are all somewhat recovered from the Tournament. We should all be very pleased with our efforts. The very warm farewell before the matter of the Anders incursion was a result of your hard work-- all of you. 

And now we find ourselves returned to Kirkwall. I begged patience from many of you, and I thank you for it. Skyhold wishes for us to come and speak with a delegation from the Chantry and the Templars much as the mages did. I will be attending, as will Obi-Wan Kenobi and Araceli Bonaventura. Both are known well to the leadership of Skyhold and very familiar with Thedas itself.

However, we need a fourth for our party, and this I leave to you. Any Rifter is eligible for nomination. I would suggest that you choose carefully. Ideally, our fourth would be familiar with Thedas and settled into the Inquisition, as well as accustomed to dealing with pressure with grace. 

There will be a box outside my office with slips for nominations nearby. Please record your name and the name of your nominee below it. I would appreciate responses turned in with all haste.

Comments

[foxsays]

For those who would look for a candidate, Madame de Cedoux until recently headed Diplomacy for a year. She is a lady who displays the qualities needed for this and more; eloquent, tactful, passionate about that which she cares for, whilst still able to be courteous.

[ipseite]

I am grateful to be thought of, Mlle Bonaventura.

[foxsays]

I learnt a great deal from you and I feel we would be foolish not to have the chance to have you with us after all that you've done for everyone here. We'd be hard-pressed to find others bringing the same skills in one body, and that is what we're allowed.

[zombra]

Why "until recently?"

[ipseite]

I felt that it was my duty to ensure that those impacted by the phylacteries had the opportunity to speak to that. I was not comfortable with the original secrecy that surrounded those plans, what that would have meant; I acted as my conscience dictated.

Regrettably, this was a point of contention between myself and my colleagues. It became more politic to stand down from the role. I continue to work within the division.

[zombra]

And what would it have meant? Sorry, but I got dropped here pretty recently and only heard about the mage phylactery thing after it was over.

[ipseite]

A rather more direct outcome than the Chantry is yet able to force upon this matter. The phylacteries existed; they would have continued to be held over the mages bound to them. It would not have been a matter for discussion, at the time that it was.

I preferred that those concerned have an opportunity to act before they were forced to react. Much, indeed, as we have subsequently been given the same opportunity.

[zombra]

Oh, okay. That makes sense, then. Stepping down, I mean.

[ There's a pause as she tries to figure out how to word this without sounding harsh. ]

But -- I'm wondering -- would it be a bad look to have you as one of the diplomats after you quit running the Division? Like I'm just trying to put myself in the shoes of the Chantry and other people who are gonna be at the meeting. They might be all uptight about it, like "You peaced out, but now you wanna help again?" I dunno; I could be wrong, but you know: the Chantry. They seem pretty set in their ways.

[ipseite]

( a thoughtful hum, a twofold clarification: )

At no point have I... ( yeah, she's going to sound absurd if she echoes tessa's actual phrasing, ) ceased to work as a diplomat. As I say, I have continued to work within the division since stepping down as its ambassador; most recently I was engaged in that capacity at the tourney.

( and thank fuck. ina hachette hadn't been easy to turn. )

I should be more concerned that Chantry representatives will take exception to the fact that I have not stopped working, that my politics are known. ( the continued influence of known troublemakers etcetera etcetera ) But the same argument can be made of most all we are sending and might yet.

[zombra]

Oh, man. In that case, it's lose-lose, huh?

[ Which isn't Tessa saying Petra might as well go. Tessa doesn't really know her, or any of the people named as attendees. She'd feel better knowing that the last person picked was someone she actually knows. It makes her wonder how many of them are like her: leaving their fates to Rifters they've never even met. It's different than back home, where people in Washington, D.C. represented millions. There's only thirty-odd number of them. They should all know each other. ]

I wonder if it's too late to have a Rifter mixer or something. It feels like we should all get together in one place at the same time to get to know each other. All these important decisions regarding what's gonna happen to us seems weird if we're all just a bunch of names and nothing else.

[ipseite]

The Chantry will like no one for speaking out against phylacteries. Yet we must.

I would recommend that rifters look more to the world we are in, most of all. It would be a more useful occupation to learn more of the Chantry itself, the laws of the land.

[zombra]

Dude, learning to integrate into society doesn't mean we shouldn't learn about each other too. Maybe you know the others going to this meeting to represent our interests, but I sure don't, and that's not something I'm personally cool with. I'd like to at least meet them at some point before they head off; hear what their experiences are with negotiations and that sort of thing. I can't be the only one thinking that.

[ipseite]

( gently: ) No one is stopping you from gathering if that is your desire.

If you are concerned for what work will be done, however, an understanding of what that work is and within what context it is done will serve you well. We are being used by the Chantry as fodder in a political dispute. Understand: it is not about rifters. It is convenient for those who would use us as a tool to damage the Inquisition that we be more concerned with ourselves than understanding that.

[zombra]

[ On the other side of the crystal, Tessa rolls her eyes. ]

Okay, fine. It's not about us. But making us their scapegoat doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And doesn't stop them talking about phylacteries for us, whether it's the main issue or not.

[ipseite]

It shouldn't. And the phylacteries are not unimportant.

The point that I make is that if we are manipulated into fighting the wrong battle, we will lose it. The likelihood of phylacteries for rifters becoming a reality—something we do not know in truth is possible—is a far slimmer one than the likelihood of the Chantry successfully forcing the Inquisition to rip itself apart from the inside.

This negotiation will not hang on what phylacteries mean for us as people. Nor did the negotiation of the mages. There is little weight there for people who come to the table having used our lives as a weapon to wield at their leisure. We should consider not what makes us most comfortable, but what makes us most capable.

( a party sounds nice, but it sounds like a bandaid on a gut wound. )

[zombra]

And the point I'm trying to make is I have no idea if the people going are gonna be capable, because I don't know them. I didn't vote for them. We're a minority group that has to play by the rules of a world we're still all learning about, and -- like it or not -- we're the current focus of the Chantry's witch hunt. If the phylactery thing isn't possible? Great! But we're still sending representatives to -- you know -- represent our rag tag group. I'd rather not hear they walked away from the negotiations leaving a worse impression than we've already given.

[ It's not a party; it's a way to gauge which among them has the wits to stand against their detractors and which are social nightmares that should never open their mouths in polite company. ]

[ipseite]

Yes, ( politely, ) I understood your meaning.

Thank you for hearing me, as well.

[zombra]

[ Perhaps not quite as politely: ]

And yet you kept on talking as if I didn't understand yours. We're on the same side here. The lose-lose side. It's just a matter of how little is lost at the end of it. I'm hoping not much.

[ipseite]

( petrana doesn't lower herself to the bait of tessa's tone. )

You've an opportunity before you to, as you say, 'vote for your representative'. I hope that some of what I have said proves useful to you, in using that opportunity as you are best able.

[zombra]

[ No bait here, but Tessa can't stop her from interpreting it as she will. ]

Yeah, you've given me more info, which is really what I'm after here in this whole situation. Thanks for that.

[ipseite]

You are most welcome.

[rowancrowned]

[ thranduil greatly approves. ]

[ipseite]

( thranduil is still on fucking notice. )