Valentine Nicasus Maxence Mérovée Olivier de Foncé (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
degenere) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
therookery2018-08-15 08:51 pm
degenere) wrote in therookery2018-08-15 08:51 pm
crystal || open
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.
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.
no subject
[ Since being disinherited isn't just about wriggling out of a Countship. ]
no subject
I suppose my father might be traveling. If so, his letters would be sent back to the estate, and their letters forwarded to his apartments in Val Royeaux or Val Henar or Churneau. Or Jader, if he is feeling particularly desperate and masochistic.
no subject
[ She pushes her hands into her pockets and takes a breath to steady herself. She feels weird about hearing that. Not upset, obviously. Just - weird. ]
no subject
[He's quite blasé about it, when he says it. The first part at least. The rest is delivered a bit more firmly.]
Of course I do not care. They did not care when they kicked me out. Why should I do them the pleasure of hurting? I hardly even think of them any longer. It has been years and years, you see, and I have the superior company of the Baroness Freddie and Brother Jeannot. They are far better at conversation and at everything else in this world.
no subject
[ Does it really work like that? If she concentrates on just being spiteful, and not bringing them any pleasure by being hurt, will she stop feeling so weird and uncomfortable? Except that she doesn't think they would take any pleasure in knowing she was hurt. She still remembers the way that Mum sobbed, the way that Dad cried out in fear - Not that they'd cared, they were just scared for their reputations, that's all, nothing more than that -
She runs a hand over her face and tries - tries hard - to get out of her own head. It's stupid, it's all stupid, she doesn't care, she doesn't care a bit. Simple as that. Just like him. ]
I - guess. It's - never mind. What d'you study, anyway?
[ That ought to get him blabbing long enough to give her time to pull herself together. She expects this answer is going to be long. ]
no subject
And then he launches in to his work.]
Well, if we are never minding--at present, my study is this darkspawn that was speaking, and the temple of Dumat that I am in. My appreciation for ancient architecture is particularly being quite fulfilled in this moment. It was likely constructed late in the Ancient Age, or early in the Divine--one can tell, by the dense decastyle colonnade that surrounds the main arcade. Classic of the era, especially in the Imperium. Roughly hewn, of course, lacking in the true refinement of finer architectures and the innovations displayed in the Chantries of the Divine Age especially.
That is not a study, of course. Merely an observation. I have already written pages and pages on the architecture of Orlesian Chantries from the Divine Age, especially the discontinuation of the decorative axial links and the freedom such discontinuation allowed for the placement of the colonnade.
Which reminds me, incidentally, were you disowned?
no subject
I - What? I - [ Get it together, Kitty, honestly, get it together - Kitty isn't ever at a loss for words, especially not over something this stupid - ] That's - No. No, I just - What's it matter to you? [ And then she hunches her shoulders, and tries desperately to sound gruff as she says: ] They chucked me out, that's all. Tell me more about - erm - axle-lings.
no subject
[Like please, ew.]
You asked me, so, I asked you. It is not a usual courtesy of mine, I will tell you, so I hope you are feeling quite honored. Though I think you are not.
The axial link, though: think of them as the bones of a building. Supportive, load bearing in many ways. Without them, a weak column might topple. Yet so long as the proper consideration has been given to the shape of a column, they might stand firm and support themselves, without the axial links.
This is a metaphor.
no subject
You don't have to explain what's a metaphor. I'm not stupid.
remember me
You have such deep feelings on axial links?
but ah! forget my fate
[ She takes a breath, and clenches her fists harder, and tries to get a hold of herself. ]
I really don't care about architecture.
ok
[Did someone say they don't want Val to act like they're stupid well okay here he is to answer his own rhetorical question before Kitty either does or doesn't--]
It is. Do you truly think that I think you are stupid?
no subject
Don't you? I stopped going to school when I was fifteen. Certainly haven't ever attended any university.