WKLBZ 2: Thedas

[winterwinds]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Audra, Loki, Thor
RECIPIENT: All the Inquisition
WHAT: WE'RE UNDER ATTAAAACK
WHEN: during all this shit in Tevinter
WHERE: They're in the catacombs but anyone with a crystal can hear them
NOTES: Audra Loki Thor. threadjack away frendos

To anyone listening, Minrathous is under attack by Corypheus and his Venatori. Anyone wearing Inquisition colors is not safe, anyone who would oppose him is not safe. I beg those of us still in the city to make their way out, but help any you can without putting yourself in danger as well.

Under attack is putting it rather mildly? There's a Gods' Damned Corrupted Dragon lifting the Archon's Palace out of the ground! The guard are beating people to death in the streets!
Listen, all of you would do well to get to the docks or the catacombs, or leave the city on foot if you can stay hidden! Don't go dithering around looking for help; you won't find any here!

Not all of our people are heartless or Venatori. Avoid the guards and anything with the imperial crest, but if you are human or dwarf there should be those who will help disguise you if you need it. Particularly if you let the mages among you take the lead. Seek the alleys; they have the entrances to the catacombs. Some of us will linger to help those unfamiliar out, but we will not linger long. It is not safe. And watch the sky. The dragon is... fast.

Comments

[hwaaaitsme]

[Sorry, Kitty, you get Loki.]

I assume someone is already outside of this Gods Forsaken place. If you want to know who in particular, that is a bit beyond us right now.

[arlathvhen]

[ Slides in here like what up I'm more useful than some MAGISTER NERD. ]

I have a list of people who have been assigned to areas of Tevinter outside of Minrathous. There is a decent amount of them, but luckily, there's been no reported concerted effort to attempt to abduct them, not like there's been in Minrathous.

[hwaaaitsme]

Yes. What. Luck.

[So lucky, the luckiest. Trapped in a field outside a city they aren't welcome in. How fortunate for them.

Except it actually is and he wishes he was among them because maybe, just maybe, his mother would not be dead and gradually cooling in this very room if that were the case.]

Why don't you be a good elf and disseminate that then? I've people to heal, apparently.

[rathercommon]

Right. I'm outside the city myself, in the southern part of the country. What can I do?

[arlathvhen]

There's a group of people escaping through the catacombs. I'm not sure where they'll be coming out, you'll have to speak to them about that. But they have injured with them, and might be pursued by Venatori. We need people to meet them, and help them get back to the Gallows safely.

[rathercommon]

All right. Is there a place near Tevinter where I can get horses? Or carriages? Do you know?

[arlathvhen]

...No. I'd suggest asking the people who are in Tevinter. [ She's never set foot in that country and has no intention of doing so. ] But...I'll see what I can find out.

[rathercommon]

[ Sharply - ]

I'm not talking to you. Why don't you shut up for once and concentrate on something valuable? Like actually helping the people you should be helping?

[hwaaaitsme]

Oh and remind me, you mouthy tart, just how much you're currently helping? [He is livid--to be fair, he was already, but Kitty just brings out the best in him.]

I've helped people escape capture, healed wounds, and am currently trapped in a catacomb filled with smoke and co--[He stops very abruptly.]

You can comment on my value when you've actually done something.

[rathercommon]

Filled with smoke and what?

[hwaaaitsme]

[Oh there is a lot of emotion in the audible breath he draws through gritted teeth. His answer is tight and very, deeply unfriendly.]

People who need help leaving this place.

[rathercommon]

[ Bullshit. ]

Well, if you stop chattering, you'll breathe less smoke. A win for everyone involved.

[coquettish_trees]

[ deeply cross: ]

Kitty.

[rathercommon]

[ Just as cross in return: ]

What.

private

[coquettish_trees]

[ quietly, after a moment: ]

There will be another day when he is flippant, irascible, contemptuous, dismissive, sharp-tongued, infuriating, and any number of other things that you find terribly objectionable, and on that day you may snipe at each other to your heart's content but not today.

[ a quiet breath ]

Please.

private

[rathercommon]

[ This isn't said in a tone of complaint, but rather with the confident air of someone presenting evidence in court. ]

He called me a tart.

private ∞

[coquettish_trees]

[ tiredly: ]

His city burns above us, we are covered in its dust and blood. There have been... losses. I am not asking for kindness, I do not imagine it would be well received in any case, just... this? Not now.

For me, if that good will extends any further.

[rathercommon]

[ Yeah, but it's a shitty city full of slavers??? So literally who cares???? Except ugh it's probably not the slavers who died, it's probably the common people, because it's always the common people. So - ]

Fine. But I hope you're saying the same thing to him, since I am trying to coordinate a rescue effort and he's the one jumping in and insulting me for it.

[coquettish_trees]

You have my word I shall intercede on your behalf if in the future you find yourself in a similar position.

[ read: I'm not saying the same thing to him, no. ]

[rathercommon]

[ With some annoyance: ]

Yeah, right.

[ But this is not the time to have a fight about how Lexie coddles her slave-keeping monsters. Instead, with a huffed sigh: ]

In any case. I'll keep you up to date. I'll be helping out with meeting all of you, so let me know if there's anything special you need.

[coquettish_trees]

[ now that that's done with, wryly: ]

Do bring a nice face mask, a bowl of chilled fruit, and a case of Freddie's wine.

[ but actually: ]

I will be pleased enough to see you. Be safe. Or be as clever and doggedly tenacious as I know you to be if you cannot bring yourself to do the former.

[rathercommon]

If I'm good at anything, I'm good at surviving.

[ Then - ]

Is this the...first time you've been in danger? Like, real immediate danger?

[coquettish_trees]

I— there is always—

[ She would play it off for nearly anyone else. But it's Kitty, and for whatever reason she had decided to keep her promise to the young woman even after they'd left the spa. And every so often she can still smell the copper tang of blood mixed with smoke. It's under her fingernails, and there's always more under there, and the room is saturated with grief and rage that has nowhere to go.

It is not like anything else. ]

Yes.

[rathercommon]

I'm sorry.

[ Kitty's voice softens a bit. Goes gentle. She feels a little twinge of guilt for her harshness and anger earlier, because...Well. Because Lexie didn't deserve it. Because none of them deserved it. So: ]

But you've made it this far, and that means you can make it further. It's like any other sort of endurance, I think. If you lived through humiliation, you can easily live through danger.

[coquettish_trees]

It is hardly the same, and you know this.

[ Lexie sounds a little strained. ]

No-one dies in the arms of their desperately— I cannot. There is neither time nor space for me to—

[ there is a loud and decisive sniff, a delicate throat clear. ]

I will be no further burden. You may be sympathetic to me over chilled fruit and Haut-Brion wine, but not until then.