therookery | crystal.

Entry tags:

crystal.

FORM: Crystal!
SENDER: Gwenaëlle Baudin.
RECIPIENT: Anyone with a crystal.
WHAT: Summary of content.
WHEN: Currentish.
WHERE: She's in Halamshiral; wherever you all are.
NOTES: Optional side quest. Also I know the difference between Kirkwall and Halamshiral and didn't edit her misspeaking a day later. You don't know.

This is Gwenaëlle Baudin. I need to make a brief trip from Halamshiral to an estate in the Dales, and given what happened the last time I took that road—

( understandably tersely, for those who do know what it was that happened, )

—I would prefer to do it with several able warriors. I've some other contacts I can reach out to closer to hand if no one is available, but I'm not in a great rush to do it, so if anyone is bored of the unrest in Kirkwall and would like to make a bit of coin on the side while touring some different, exciting unrest in what I assume will be remembered as the last days of Orlais before it was overrun by Corypheus, do be in touch.

Do not bother responding if you can't bring yourself to refrain from embarrassing the Inquisition in the High Quarter.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You hate the Empress. Right?

Everyone she killed stays dead no matter what I do now.

Yeah. Of course. Nothing brings back the dead.

The worst thing she ever did to me was nothing to her, and I've other battles to fight. Fucking phylacteries, for a start.

What about phylacteries?

You'd rather not have one.

Too right, I wouldn't. Where do you fall on the issue?

Anyone with an anchor-shard who falls anywhere else on the issue is deluding themselves about how long the difference between rifter and native bearers will matter.

[ Wait. ]

You have an anchor shard? I thought only we got 'em.

That's never been the case. Rifters remaining willfully ignorant is quite common, though, you'll fit right in if you just firmly believe being foreign makes you special.

[ Irritated: ]

I got here about two weeks ago. Don't you get high and mighty about what I do or don't know.

I'd recommend not making baseless assumptions in the future if you want to avoid looking like an idiot. Most of the rest don't have your excuse, and it doesn't stop them.

Oh, please. So, all right, so sorry for having thoughts based on things I've been told and observed, how'd you get your shard.

If you don't want to be lumped in with the lot, distinguish yourself.

I'd rather that you have enough perception and keenness to be able to differentiate rifters from one another. Plus, you can't tell me that you don't occasionally get up your own arse.

I married a rifter. I don't bother differentiating the lazy and spoiled who take the free food, protection and shelter that no one else is entitled to without working for it and then complain it's so hard and unreasonable to expect some effort from the mouthy resource drains.

[ Primly: ]

Oh, yes, because someone like you has never taken free food, protection, or shelter without working each day of your life. So how did you get the rift shard?

The aggressive unwillingness of some rifters to give a damn about what their position means to Thedas is why you're in danger of phylacteries.

( flatly. )

And you're going to drag everyone else down with you. But no, tell me again what about this conversation makes you think I'd be comfortable discussing one of the worst experiences of my life with you, and why you're entitled to my reliving it for your amusement.

[ She doesn't sound remotely chagrined. ]

'Cause I want to understand it. Something's been done to me and to my body, and I don't know why. And I thought it was only us, but apparently it's not. So I want to understand. And also, you're being awfully cruel right now, aren't you.

No. I'm being honest, which is more than you'll get from most of these incompetent fuckwits. If you need your hand held, there are plenty who'll do it; just don't be surprised when the fire you didn't want to hear about catches your feet.

I want to hear about the fire. Honestly. Are you not hearing me asking repeatedly about the fire? Because I am asking about it.

What you're asking about is my personal and none of your fucking business experience that we will not be discussing today or ever, but if you want to talk about something relevant and productive, I'm more than happy to elaborate on the difference between my lord paying my upkeep and yours coming directly out of the budget for the war effort that is underfunded and understaffed at best, without any obligations to contribute.

Rifters think they're something separate, cluster together and the loudest voices are the least valuable among them. That's what they'll take advantage of - who cares what happens to some ungrateful layabouts? Who's going to fight for you to be protected when half of you spurn the protections you already enjoy? It isn't the Inquisition's fault that they are the only protection rifters have against this horseshit, or that a loudmouthed minority are jeopardizing even that, but you wouldn't know it to listen to these imbeciles.

Don't you think you're being a bit unfair? I don't think it's right for people not to participate, and not to fight, at least in some way. But the way it's set up - it's a problem more with the Inquisition than it is with the rifters, isn't it?

Of course it's unfair. You were ripped from your worlds and you've no more choice than anyone else; less. The anchor-shard binds me here whether I join or not, just the same. It's never been fair.

That doesn't matter. The Inquisition can't solve that problem for you, because nothing is fucking fair and no one gives a damn. If your only argument when it comes down to it is 'it isn't fair', you'll get what you're given. The civil war wasn't fair, either- your 'unfair' isn't uniquely more sympathetic than anyone else's. The Inquisition has done as much as it can, and there aren't better options. If you don't take advantage of what opportunities there are in that, no one can do anything more for you.

This is the situation that you're in. Whether it's fair or not is irrelevant. You should know what's being thought and said because what is happening matters.

Edited 2018-07-07 00:48 (UTC)

I do want to know what's being thought and said. I'm just pointing out that what you're saying isn't fair. We might not have control over the world around us, or the situations we're in, but we have got control over how we react to what's going on. Not that I need to tell you that, since it's essentially the heart of your own argument - stop complaining and get to acting. Right?

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