tea time

[bouchonne]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Byerly
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: By is actually trying to be helpful and is not just here for the drama. No comment on my own priorities.

It seems prudent, given the current situation, for us to publicly identify those who have been acting out of character. I can understand a desire for secrecy, to take any imposters by surprise, but the risk of one of our own being caught unawares seems much greater.

Who has been strange of late? And when did this change in behavior start?

Comments

[elegiaque]

( startled, )

What? No.

[portalling]

( Faintly, vaguely hopeful: ) It could just have been… bonding…?

[elegiaque]

( dubiously, )

For his sake, yes, maybe. But it doesn't sound like him as I know him. He made a point to me, several times, that he doesn't do that expressly because—

He was a Templar. He doesn't press mages. You're close enough I'd be very surprised if you fell outside of... I think he'd like you, I just don't know that he'd be asking you about yourself when you don't volunteer those things.

[portalling]

Huh, well.

( There’s a slow-dawning horror starting to creep in at the edges. He’s paranoid enough that he can’t dismiss the possibility out-of-hand. A part of it feels extremely surreal, because truly what if the first time he ever got along with Orlov it was a demon— he will never live this down— )

The conversation was mostly about lyrium and then myself, my history as a doctor, if going back to medicine felt like a step down from sorcery. Quite personal.

( It was nice!!! He thought they were becoming friends! )

[elegiaque]

( sounds sus.

after a moment, )

How did he talk about the lyrium?

private ∞

[portalling]

( Stephen finally caves and makes the rest of this private. Some niggling sense of a doctor’s confidentiality and hating the privacy violation in this; on the off-chance Orlov really is still Orlov, presumably he won’t appreciate this being blathered all over the public network. )

Practical, businesslike about the benefits of quitting, and maybe a little proud. Implied that if Cullen could do it over at the Inquisition, then so could he. Agreed with me about heading off any Chantry supply issues at the pass by quitting.

i/ii

[elegiaque]

—he's a fucking demon.

ii.

[elegiaque]

He told me once, in a lucid period during, that he'd told Flint it was in part my doing, and I made a joke about he was trying to get me in trouble—

he said to me, he didn't want credit he didn't deserve. He said it was important to him. That's not how Vanya Orlov feels about his addiction, Stephen.

[portalling]

( Immediately: ) Tell Yseult.



( Which Gwenaëlle does, quickly enough. And after that, there are further questions buzzing around in the back of his skull and a stinging irrational self-consciousness at not having picked this up, but the only thing which makes it out is: )

I’m sorry.

[elegiaque]

( she should say something — better, to that. in all likelihood, vanya orlov is dead and the thing that she had reached for in relief had been a demon and,

and that has to wait. it just has to. )

Carsus suggested you should start keeping a list of who we're sure about, you have personnel names for the infirmary records— he rattled off the new people we don't have any real way to check on, including himself, but frankly, I think the demons are doing a better job of blending in with what passes for ordinary in the Gallows than Gannicus, that witless Tav or Arany, so I don't think we need to worry about them.

Unless Gannicus has started wearing trousers because demons know we wear them.

( so, asterisk that one.

she can't think about orlov. )

[portalling]

( Great minds— ) I’ve already been working on a list. It’s easy to point fingers, but we need that verification compiled; it seems everyone’s been doing it privately, for the most part, which doesn’t help the broader effort.

( There is a certain way he sounds, in an emergency: the tenderness in his voice ebbs away in favour of surgical matter-of-factness, even here, even with her. Compartmentalise everything, pack it away for later. )

But you’re right. Arany is— an absolute freak, apparently, but that makes me have more faith in her. A demon would have tried harder. Same for Tav. He’s possessed by a demon sometimes but isn’t literally one, and we know this already.

[elegiaque]

( under the circumstances, that last part is frankly a bit disorienting to hear, and there's the sound of her starting and stopping several things that don't become full words on the other end of the crystal before she settles on, )

I'm just going to trust you that you have whatever the fuck that means under control, ( absolutely sincerely. maybe they'll circle back to that, later, but there are more pressing demon issues today. )

If you've been talking to Templars about lyrium, I have notes, but that can wait, too. I'm going to go make myself useful.

[portalling]

Same.

( He needs to keep working on that list, and also go do some research. )

I’ll see you—

( When? Later? As soon as they can? Stephen hesitates for a moment, unable to promise anything concrete, before finally concluding with: )

Well. When we can.

[hassaran]

[ After a reasonably patient interval: ] The answer could be pertinent to our determination.

[elegiaque]

It is. It's not him, Scoutmaster.

[hassaran]

I'll need to hear the reasoning.

And also for you to tell me how you chose to wake the 8th floor during Captain Rowntree's first midnight drill.

[elegiaque]

( orlov has forgiven her for worse cruelties than this, but her discomfort with it is still audible: )

It isn't a source of pride for him. He has — very deep shame associated with lyrium addiction. To the extent that he considers it a positive, he isn't comfortable taking credit for it. He wouldn't have spoken about it the way Dr Strange described him doing, and he doesn't engage unfamiliar mages that way, either. I was — part of that process.

And I was mostly aiming for Flint with Hardie. I had a bell and I had him barking at all the doors.

[hassaran]

Mostly.

Thank you. You're sure Strange's report can be trusted?

[elegiaque]

( rowntree made her give the bell back, which was probably right given how much she enjoyed herself with it— )

I'm certain of him.

[portalling]

( Adding this to the official record for posterity, as Bastien and Byerly did, to have the verification work both ways: )

And vice versa.