crystal || open

[degenere]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: the Baroness Freddie Durfort-Lacapalette & Val de Foncé
RECIPIENT: everyone with a sending crystal
WHAT: some Orlesians meet talking darkspawn in a Temple of Dumat
WHEN: backdated to a few days before the invasion of Minrathous
WHERE: the Silent Plains. underground. literally.
NOTES: we still love threadjacking should the opportunity arise and we’ll be threadjacking YOU. merci beaucoup. Val is this color and Freddie is this color


Inquisition. [Val: Orlesian accent, very serious. As always, this is of dire importance.] Darkspawn. They can talk.

Now, they say nothing of consequence. Indeed, they barely say at all. And yet, they speak. They wear clothing.

Nothing of consequence! Don't mislead them, Valentine, it--he?--the darkspawn, it was repeating a verse about Silence, and this must be a temple to Dumat! Darkspawn worshipping the Old Gods makes quite a bit of sense, one must admit, but reciting prayers! Extraordinary!

Well--yes. [A little annoyed at being corrected, but not very, as it is Freddie who did the correcting.] When it is put that way, of course it all becomes consequential. Perhaps that is the wrong word to use, to discuss such a-- do we call such a thing a feat?

I could hardly guess without more information. We can't eliminate the possibility that they have always been able to speak and have simply never bothered. Or perhaps this is something Corypheus has somehow done to them. It might also--oh look, Val! These scrolls look ancient!

Oh, shit. [But a wondering shit] Tevene, yes? Ancient Tevene, for ancient scrolls. We must take care, to preserve these, carry them back to Kirkwall, for-- Oh, but the research team. We were sent to join them, but alas: to a man, they are dead. Sacrificed, by our best guess, unless they chose to cut their own throats. I hope they were not beloved by anyone of the Inquisition, as they are quite past loving now. Yet in their death, they have led us--de Foncé and Durfort-Lacapalette--to such discovery. Ancient scrolls! A temple! Darkspawn that talk. The sacrifice of these lives has not been in vain. [Well.] Though veins were cut, in the sacrificing.

Sweet Maker, do not start punning. They were fellow seekers of knowledge even if they were Tevinters, we ought to show at least a pinch of respect. [ That to Val, this to their audience: ] Alas, they are quite gone, as Val has said, but this place is marvelous--in a dreadful macabre way, of course, but what a discovery! We may even find something here of interest in combating Corypheus. It's unlikely to be coincidence after all, all this darkspawn and Dumat just now.

Of course, without evidence, we cannot say for certain. Will there be evidence? Only careful excavation and exhaustive research of this ruin will tell.

[Oh, wait--]

And before anyone should be so pedantic as to make the claim that Corypheus is a talking darkspawn, I will disprove this easily and say on the record: that does not count. A corrupted magister may talk. A true darkspawn may not. Until now. Apparently.

Just so. A talking hurlock is an entirely different proposition.

Comments

[aventuriere]

Must it be easy? That is hardly the attitude of a true scholar.

[rathercommon]

[ Why is she getting this from two sides ]

Never said I was a true scholar. Never would say that.

[degenere]

Why else would you travel to the University, if you are not a scholar?

[Oh, wait, Rifter--]

It is an institution of learning. Yes? A school? Is there such a world that goes without?

[rathercommon]

I mean, probably there is, somewhere. But there are schools where I'm from, yeah.

[ Shrug. ]

But I want to go to the University to learn things, not 'cause I'm a scholar.

[degenere]

[Quel horreur that such a world exists, probably, somewhere, and Val makes a quiet sigh to denote his feelings on the matter.]

But that is what a scholar does. Learn. Study. And he is obligated to other tasks as well, of course, but chief of what is asked of him is that he learn. What would you prefer yourself to be called if not scholar, while you learn?

[rathercommon]

Sorry, why are we calling scholars he?

[ 60% avoiding a question she doesn't know the answer to, 40% genuine irritation. ]

[degenere]

Were we?

[Huh! Weird!]

I suppose I was thinking of myself: Val de Foncé, the scholar. As you were adamant to separate yourself from the title. I could speak examples of Freddie instead, if you prefer?

[rathercommon]

I don't prefer anything.

[ A huff. ]

Look, scholars, they wear robes and go about all soberly and do nothing except study. That's not me. So I'm not a scholar.

[degenere]

[Val laughs, scornfully.]

Your pardon, sweet Rifter. But you have been misinformed, or else are allowing base assumption to drown out the truth of what a scholar is. Robes! Robes. I would never wear a robe. I have never worn them. Dear Jeannot might wear robes of the Chantry, faithful brother that he is, but that is entirely separate. And I have had the good fortune to behold Freddie in such a variety of costumes and clothing, yet never once a robe. Indeed it would be a shame to drown her figure in a robe. She is stunning, I will assure you, if you have not yet beheld her yourself. Freddie, can you imagine? Being choked in a robe?

And how does a scholar do field research if her team is clad all in robes?

[rathercommon]

[ Of all the things to get worked up about... ]

All right, fine, no robes. I take that part back.

[degenere]

And the 'soberly' part as well. You must take that back. Really, what you must do is adjust your understanding of what it is that a scholar might be, and might do. It is extremely narrow as understandings go. A mere crack through which you have peered into the scholar's domain, and decided yes, they are all in robes and going about with great solemnity and sleeping early. What a tragedy, to think of scholars in such terms. You miss the vibrancy of the debate, the life that is fieldwork, the excitement that is the research, the understanding of new fact and new points--all of it, like a fire that kindles in the breast.

[rathercommon]

Okay, sure.

[ God, he's a talker. She cuts in as soon as he pauses long enough for her to do so. ]

But why do you study? What's the point of it?

[degenere]

[Disarmed not by the interruption (because he could just talk right over her, he has done it before and he will do it again) but by the question contained within the interruption, Val stops.

For a second.]

To learn, of course. What purer pursuit is there, than that of knowledge?

[rathercommon]

[ A shrug, unseen but audible in her voice. And she presses again, in different words: ]

I don't know much about pure. What's it get you, knowing things? What's it get other people?

[degenere]

[Almost offended, he scoffs.]

Everything, of course! To know, and to understand--to comprehend, perhaps this is a better word? Whatever the word that you would prefer, there is nothing else that compares to it.

It is through knowing that we see where it is that we came from, and where it is that we go to next. We: the beings that are walking upon this soil. It is through knowing that we come to comprehend our very selves. What we are. If we cease to learn, then we cease, truly, to live.

If a baby were to be born and to refuse to learn, he would come to nothing. Even the most basic of knowledges--to eat, to raise his head from the ground, to speak, to sing, to write, to walk, to run, to read, to listen with a tuned ear, to seek higher knowledge and philosophies--he refuses to learn these. And what is he then, in this refusing? A lump of flesh, that takes in air and sound, and sleeps, and expels waste, perhaps makes some slight noises out of basic instinct--for a short time, at least--until he died. That is man without learning. It is to be a lump of flesh and nothing more.

[rathercommon]

[ Uhh. There's a very slight edge in her voice. ]

So - in your view - people who aren't allowed to have educations are just lumps of flesh.

[degenere]

Hm. I would need to know the person, to make judgement on that. What is allowed, in this? Has he a desire for knowledge? It might be any knowledge at all. Even the most basic, as I said.

[rathercommon]

[ Fiercer: ]

Well, how about most of the kids I grew up with, who weren't allowed to learn to read. Who only had access to the nice little crafts they needed to learn to be nice little factory workers and nice little servants.

[degenere]

I will ask again. Has they a desire for knowledge?

[rathercommon]

What difference does it make? Desires don't mean anything for most people. What, if they've got dreams of being something other than what they're forced to be, only then they're worthwhile?

[degenere]

Dreams and knowledge, these should be kept from blending in this example. They are different. A man might dream for knowledge. A woman, if you prefer. A friend of yours. We could use a name, if you prefer, but I would fear that we would muddy this with sentiment more than we have already.

The point of what I say is that a woman who toils might still possess the curiosity that could be encouraged. A spark, is how it is sometimes called. That spark, if encouraged, would kindle to that same fire that I spoke of earlier. The passion. One who learns nothing ceases truly to live.

[rathercommon]

[ Irritably: ]

One's who's dead has ceased to live.

[ But she doesn't really disagree. Mostly she's just angry from an instinct to defend her folk against someone with that way of speaking. ]

So, all of this, then, it's cause you're trying to find some reason for living?

[degenere]

[why what way of speaking is that 0:) ]

No. Correct words, most of them, but of those that are correct, the order is wrong. I am trying, always, to learn, because that is living.

Some seek to define life, and meaning. Some philosophize. A man might seek the meaning of life, in his research. I believe that I have found it. And there is nothing but to live it, for me. To live without it would be a death of the soul.

[rathercommon]

[ She shakes her head, and says - ]

But all of that - that's selfish. It means that you're only living for - the pleasure you get. That's it.

[degenere]

And the furthering of knowledge, which is of course to be shared. For example, it is not personal pleasure that drove Freddie and I to enter this temple.

[Mostly not.]

But the knowledge we have uncovered, this will be a great benefit. From discovery comes new understanding, and new discovery, and from there it goes.