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

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?

( gwen counts backwards from ten.

audibly. )

What I am saying is telling your thick-headed self what is being said and thought. I am telling you what the situation is that rifters are in and why. I'm not lecturing you because I think you give a fuck what I think. I am trying to explain to you what that is, because apparently you want to know, unless of course it doesn't sound very nice.

Obviously it sounds unfair! It is!

What's most unfair is that those rifters who actually do do anything sensible are dragged down by the idiots that don't. So it is very important that the few of you capable of critical thought, which you are violently disabusing me of hoping that you might be one, understand what they are facing and what needs to be done.

If you're done being precious about my tone.

You're telling me what's being said, but you're also telling me what you're saying. Calling them imbeciles and the like. They're doubtless terribly frightened, and disoriented, and unhappy.

[ If Kitty sounds compassionate, it's because she is. If she sounds impossibly, infuriatingly arrogant and condescending towards her fellow rifters, well, it's because she's that, too. ]

I just think empathy is awfully important, especially now. When it seems like Corypheus' greatest weapon is everyone's inability to just talk to one another. [ Anyway. And speaking of - ] And I am sorry that getting the rift-shard was so dreadful for you. It wasn't anything particularly terrible for me, so I had assumed that it wasn't any worse for you. My mistake.

There are rifters who've been here more than two years. At a certain point, we stop treating grown adults like little babies who hurt their poor little knees. When they act like idiots, I'm not going to pretend that they'll get any more leeway for it than anyone else; they won't. Letting them think otherwise is crueler, frankly, because I for one don't think they should learn better when they're shackled to a phylactery.

( this is compassionate, where our lady of opinions is concerned. she doesn't come in gentle. )

You wanted to hear what I think, you did. If you wanted it to sound different, ask someone else.

[ Kitty lets out a sigh, but there's no further agitating about her tone. ]

So what do you think the rifters should be doing? What would be the best way to act?

Mind those who came before you. Araceli Bonaventura has been here the longest and she's adapted better than any,

( including her own husband )

she remembers how it was for rifters at the beginning. She knows what you're dealing with better than anyone. She knows how to play the game and she cares about compassion; she knows how to be smart about it so you don't just die on the hill of your ideals but get something fucking done.

( sometimes they braid each other's hair and foment rebellion. )

You need to work. To learn, to listen, to remember that tolerance for 'what my world was like' affronts lessens every day longer you've been in this one. They want to see you're worth investing in. That you'll help more than hinder. You start at a disadvantage and have to consider that and the context of it. Clinging to what was different in your life before just gives ammunition to dismiss your opinions as ignorant of what's in front of you.

Edited 2018-07-07 03:10 (UTC)

[ Kitty makes a noise of frustration. Listen and work hard? She was hoping for something more concrete. Though... ]

But this world is...really broken. In a lot of ways. A lot of ways. And sometimes it takes someone on the outside to see what's wrong, while someone who's been in it all their life won't notice it. You know - you don't ask a fish about water. All that. You think that rifters should lose that awareness of difference? That understanding that there are other ways?

Be smart about it, so you don't just die on the hill of your ideals. If you don't adapt first, no one is going to listen to the latest in a long line of dismissable idiots who just don't understand their situation.

We're not unaware things are terrible. We're sort of in the middle of trying to do something about a lot of those things. If you can't earn respect contributing to what is being done usefully, you will never earn enough to be listened to and do anything else. You aren't new or novel. Rifters have been coming for years, now. The rifters who've effected change weren't the ones who strolled around shouting 'I'm the King of Imaginary Land And Here's How Much Better It Was At Home'.

The Provost leads an entire division of this outpost. He rose to that position despite being both a rifter and an elf. You think he forgot where he came from, or that he learned how to use it?

( spoiler, it's the second one. )

Mages hold positions of authority and were able to negotiate on their own behalf; whatever my opinions of the implementation ( AND THEY ARE MANY, AND UNIMPRESSED, ) it's not to be entirely dismissed that legal protections and rights for elves in Orlais have been drastically improved, at least on paper, in the last few years. You aren't one lone voice. If you act like it, you'll be treated like it, and you'll achieve nothing but a sore throat.

Edited 2018-07-07 23:16 (UTC)

[ In response to that statement about not being unaware of how things are terrible, Kitty shrugs and offers a philosophical: ]

If you want to know about water, don't ask a fish.

[ Then: ]

I do appreciate your advice. For what it's worth, I was never king of anything, nor anyone of any worth at all, so you really don't have to worry about me bragging about who I used to be. And I'm not someone who assumes that my world's rules apply in the absence of my world. But I'm also not going to temper my voice so that it sounds like everyone else's. At the end of the day, I've got to answer to my own conscience before I answer to my fear of surveillance, or even to my fear of death.

I'm not telling you to sound like everyone else. If you think that's what 'be smart' means, it's already useless advice to give you.

( after a moment— )

A stranger comes and leads the way with new ideas is a storybook. People resent and resist change, even when it benefits them, even when not changing means dying. The fact the Inquisition has this much fucking trouble getting anything done at all speaks to that truth; it shouldn't be so damned difficult to convince people to save their own lives, but here we fucking are.

( there's a reason gwenaëlle is so bitter about the competence of the inquisition and thedas in general. )

You don't stop speaking. But you have to learn how to say things people will hear. How to make speaking effective. How to work with other people to do that.

Edited 2018-07-08 00:48 (UTC)

[ A little grunt of acknowledgment. ]

And any thoughts on how I do that?

What division did you join? And what are your skills.

Before you object to my repeating myself, I need specifics to give you specific advice.

[ Kitty hesitates, then answers: ] I...joined research. I haven't really got any skills to speak of, though.

Research is exactly where you should be. And the self-deprecating horseshit will get you no where, I can think of three things you could've answered me with from this conversation alone. I'll start: you're stubborn as a fucking mule.

( like knows like. just briefly, imagine this bitch and her mouth in the heart of the orlesian court, it was as difficult and ill-advised as you think. )

Research means you can work and learn at once, and stubborn means you'll keep going when lesser imbeciles would find it hard and give up because they aren't being patted on the bottom frequently enough. Don't leap immediately into the projects, I would say, but do take opportunities to go on field missions if you're able. Closing rifts always builds goodwill, but if you're no more enthusiastic about that than I am, no one will force it and there are less relentlessly full of demons things you can attach yourself to doing. Work alongside Thedosians as much as possible and mind what things they take for granted. You can't learn about people only by asking them questions.

Asking questions just teaches you how they prepare answers. Letting them talk sometimes gives them rope you can grasp for a hand up later, or choke them with.

[ Kitty is, of course, completely independent, and doesn't need validation from anyone. That said, validation can still be nice. Slightly cheered by the almost-sort-of-something-like-affirmation-or-at-least-something-that's-less-like-an-insult, she says: ]

I want to go out and close rifts. It means saving lives - especially saving the lives of common people, and - [ Against her better judgment, and in a bit of a rush, she adds: ] Magic's not much good against me. So.

[ But, more relevantly - ]

Is there anyone in particular I should be listening to more closely, do you think?

Thranduil is your division head - Provost of Research. You should,

( if it sounds like she's saying this through rage-clenched teeth, she is, and it has nothing to do with kitty, )

heed him. He's been here nearly so long as Araceli and he plays a very long game. ( and she may strangle him with his own stupid hair, but that's not relevant to anything they're discussing right now.

or: it is, but gwenaëlle doesn't want to get into it. )

Araceli Bonaventura is one of the most brilliant women I've ever met from any land—she's in the diplomacy division, but she leads one of the forces projects. She's the rifter that's been here since the beginning, since not long after Trevelyan's death. ( dryly: ) Thedas wasn't always so welcoming to you.

( alarming to think this is an improvement, probably. )

Aside from rifters—Commander Coupe is worth listening to. Not on everything, she's an interfering cunt who thinks she knows best, but more frequently than I would like we've all the misfortune of her being right. She's extremely competent and she respects work ethic, regardless of its origin. Alistair's of the Wardens, and the only one of them worth a damn.

[ Not entirely relevant just at the moment, but something she's been wondering - ]

Why do people hate the Wardens?

I imagine it's most often because they have the legal right to, at any time they deem fit, take everything of value you have and anyone who can hold a sword.

( that isn't her particular reason, but it's a compelling one. )

Wardens never come bearing good news.

Is the Blight real, then? Or is it an invention to give them more power?

Oh, no, it's real. It's real, and frankly, if these twats are all that stand between us and the Blight, we may be fucked. If we survive Corypheus.

( a natural optimist. )

They don't make it easy to be grateful to them for the work they do. And they're exactly as troublesome as everyone thinks they are, it's just that the work still is important.

Hm.

[ Filing that away. ]

And you said - Commander Coupe? What does she command?

The forces division, so nothing like an actual force.

( have you met these people, kitty. have you. gwenaëlle despairs of their future. )

'Designated herder of these fucking cats' takes longer to say, and doesn't fit so neatly with 'Provost', 'Ambassador' and 'Scoutmaster'.

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