crystal ||

[inkindled]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Matthias, on behalf of team rescue
RECIPIENT: everyone. except the dead people :,(
NOTES: info here to help you mourn accordingly. this is forward dated to 5.24 so we can make the most of this tragedy.

This is Matthias. I'm with the team that went after the missing party. They were on an assignment, looking into these elven ruins at Baron Deshaies' estate, and they--

They're dead. [He doesn't sound sad, precisely. It's the calm of someone that's gotten used to this.] We confirmed it with an Inquisition contact. Their capture from Deshaies' was purposeful but their deaths, they were-- The whole thing was the work of these mercenaries. They had a Tevinter mage with them, he was there on an assignment of his own. Somewhere on the way back, our party tried an escape. That mage, he's dead now as well, from their attempt. So they must've come close. Not that it matters now. Sometimes it's a comfort, is all.

We've made our report to the Division Heads and we're coming back, to the Gallows. We've got some of their things, that were recovered. The bodies were burned. But we thought everyone ought to know, now. Instead of waiting.

[That's the script. Matthias hesitates, and in a break from what he'd prepared to say--speaking now with more conviction, speaking in half a rush, as if he might regret what he's going to say and so has to get it all out--]

Their names were Merrill, Kitty, Anders, Sorrell, Teren, Wysteria, Bastien, Gwenaëlle [a name he's practiced saying; he stumbles on just a little], Ilias, Kain, Darras, Iorveth, John Silver, Loki, Sidony, and Magni. Saying their names, it's important. There's nothing we can do to change it or bring them back, but--they ought not to be forgotten.

Comments

[thorndergod]

What do you have of Loki's?

[His voice is tight.]

[exequy]

They do not have name tags.

[thorndergod]

What do you have that looks Tevene or expensive? Or do you simply have a collection of random items you have accepted as proof with no reason save making your life easier?

[exequy]

Yes, that is exactly it.

[ Someone else might have to help. ]

[thorndergod]

Fucking Nevarrans!

[Something crashes in the background.]

You declare my brother dead and then have no substance to back this up with?

[toujoursdroit]

[The Orlesian-accented voice is very even indeed.]

The mage is dead. Do we know who hired the mercenaries?

[He has the air of a man making a list.]

[exequy]

They were being taken to Minrathous. I do not know which specific Venatori made the bargain.

[ But. ]

Do you know the Baron Deshaies?

[toujoursdroit]

We've met, and I know a bit of his reputation, but I can't say he was someone to whom I paid an excess of attention.

[That is obviously going to change immediately and probably homicidally. But he still sounds calm.]

I have ideas of where to begin to find out more, but it will require some time even moving with the best speed. I've favors that I'll begin calling in.

[exequy]

We don't know that he was involved, or if he was if he was involved willingly.

[ Not that many people will cut him slack if he was blackmailed or threatened. ]

And we didn't have time to fully investigate. [ Before Tevinters start shouting at him again: ] We still hoped to find them.

[murrika]

Sixteen. Jesus.

[ that is... a lot of dead. that's a massacre, honestly. while hearing loki's name is a surprise (especially in the sense of him helping the save the world effort), it's somewhat of a distant notion. the last time he'd seen him was 2012.

and thor's here. best he just... sidestep loki entirely. ]

What do we know about Baron Deshaies?

[bouchonne]

[ Dry, clipped - ]

Looking for vengeance? How noble.

[murrika]

Looking for a lead.

[ homie, you don't know what vengeance steve looks like. ]

[bouchonne]

Why?

[rowancrowned]

[ he doesn't offer any correction. he doesn't offer much, frankly, his voice is monotone. ]

I would see what was given over to us.

[inkindled]

Yeah. 'Course.

I mean, we're bringing it all back with us, what there is. Anyone's welcome to it. Same goes for if there's something out of it you want. If there's anything.

[rowancrowned]

There ought to be [ he pauses, catches himself. ] ... ought some order of precedence. Wills were last made, however informally, some months ago.

I will fetch them.

[inkindled]

[He opens his mouth to say something--then thinks better of it--then opens his mouth and says it anyways--]

You'll fetch what's yours, you mean. Not-- There were sixteen of 'em. They didn't all have wills that you're holding.

[judgemewhole]

[There's a rasp to James's voice when he speaks - too many. Too many that he called friends. That he respected.]

...The bodies were burned to hide the evidence of who they were, correct? Not as a part of funeral rites? Merrill is - was - Dalish. They. They do not do as we do.

[inkindled]

Yeah, I know.

[A little testy, at last.]

I know who she is. And they were burned, before. When they tried to escape. Then they got carried back, and the Venatori, they burned whatever was left. And yeah, probably to hide the evidence. Doubt it was for any kind reasons.

[judgemewhole]

[Let it never be said that James did not rise to the challenge in his grief to be dry and caustic.]

Oh good, that makes .... what, a half dozen of you that know compared to the hundreds here? Good on you, you are well-up on our friends being murdered and then desecrated.

[A pause, and a sigh.]

My apologies. I have lost too many in this war already.

[inkindled]

Yeah, well, so've I. So've we all. Right now, before this--it's all over the place, losing people. Everyone's feeling it. You're not special so shut it.

We thought everyone deserved to know about their friends being murdered and then desecrated-- [which he says in sort of a Norrington voice, before switching back to his own again] --and that's the best that can be done.

private;

[sarcophage]

[A steady voice, smooth and certain, like before. He is extraordinarily calm, a mood barely alive, but still animate, while terrible stillness expands beneath.

It's not immediate; hours have passed.]

That was well spoken, Matthias. Thank you.

private also and forever

[inkindled]

[He's a little startled, first. Then he places the voice, and scrambles to take up his crystal so he can answer, moving away from the others into some spot of relative seclusion.]

I don't know about that. I didn't-- [There's something raw in him that shouldn't be there. He knows better. He turns the feeling away.] --do anything. Really.

[sarcophage]

It was meaningful all the same.

[Perhaps Lea has done likewise with the raw part. Perhaps he's taken and eaten it.]

Would you do something for me?

[inkindled]

[Trying to get his arms around that sentiment, trying to make it stick--maybe it was meaningful, does he want to be meaningful, does any of it even matter, the lot of them are still dead--Matthias is still quick to answer:]

Yeah, 'course. Anything.