crystal.

[elegiaque]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Gwenaëlle Baudin
RECIPIENT: All y'all.
NOTES: There's a new junior dad in town. Tell her all about your sick magic weapons and how buff or noodly your little nerd arms might be. (Happy to do action spam here or in her inbox for any office threads!)

Alright, Riftwatch, I assume I don't need to introduce myself,

( possibly because she hasn't been paying strict attention to recent arrivals, but she is certainly not herself a new face, )

but if you have somehow mistaken my accent for Alexandrie, this is Gwenaëlle Baudin, and if you haven't noticed my taking up the office, I am now your acting Captain of the Watch. ( because they are still pretending that dad might come back (with smokes) and that rowntree's appointment might be temporary. she has already begun studying nevarran, but she isn't all that optimistic about when she's going to need to know it by. ) I've started with inventorying our armoury, and as such I have a couple of requests to make of, primarily, those of you not in Forces. If you are in Forces, I need to know if you possess any personal weaponry of note that we should be taking into account. You can provide details by crystal, book or at my office. If you are not in Forces, I would like to know that, but disclosure is voluntary unless your division head decides to make it mandatory.

( yes, she checked with rowntree before announcing it's mandatory for forces. )

Further, if you are not in Forces, I'd like to have an overview of the combat readiness of our ( nerds ) general non-combatants and what their, your needs are. If you'd like particular training, or if you specifically wouldn't. If you're going to be particularly vulnerable in the sort of emergency we recently experienced, or if it'd be useful for me to be aware that you won't. Again, we can have these conversations by whatever means suits you.

( there's a brief pause. )

And to be clear, I'm not assuming all diplomats and researchers need to be provided personal fainting couches, and you will not be considered clever for getting up in arms about having your toughness questioned. If you would like to be provided a personal fainting couch, ask the Seneschal.

Comments

[elegiaque]

I am—

( she breathes out through her nose. maybe it's nearly a laugh, the sound she makes. or something else. her fingers flex at her thighs, twist in her summer-weight skirts, and she settles on: )

I'm having sort of an odd day.

( for someone who'd probably say I'm fine with a sucking chest wound, )

And I haven't felt like that holding a sword in— a while. Years. But I'm alright, ( she decides, and it sort of sounds like she's deciding to be, but maybe like she has a sturdy enough place to stand that she can. )

[sumptus]

I don't.

[ He'd been thinking-- evasion, deception, the way a ground beetle can eat a frog alive because the frog imagines it prey. How do you defeat an enemy who already knows where you live? ]

You all thought about keeping your vulnerable stuff somewhere harder to find?

lala hits enter too fuckin fast

[elegiaque]

Certainly. And if you happen to know of a fortress that can accommodate our entire operation that we can take over without incident or cost to house the vulnerable people and projects that make up what we're doing here, the leadership would love to hear about it.

( a sigh, )

We inherited this place, and our welcome's tenuous enough here. It isn't ideal but we didn't pass up a better option for it; it's what we have.

[succise]

He does not like me.

[elegiaque]

I'm sure you'll both be professional.

[dissolving]

[succise]

We'll try our best.

[wearyallalone]

Probably for the best.

Other than the inventory, is there anything else you could use some more hands for?

[elegiaque]

Good.

[elegiaque]

Always, ( is just true, if not helpfully specific. )

Do you want to go by griffon above the city and give me some ideas for potential emergency mustering points in Lowtown and Hightown?

[sumptus]

--Got it. I don't mean you aren't making the most of what you've got, I mean...

[ What? Thinking out loud around a total stranger is not his favorite of activities, but everyone is a stranger here. At least this one seems blunt enough to tell him if and how this idea is shit. ]

I don't know everything about this fortress's defenses yet, or your resources. There are plenty reasons not to keep a second outpost, even a secret one. But if you've been hit harder and closer to home than before, you've got a good reason to build one now -- or look like you are.

[ Do they need a hidden base, or a honey trap? ]

[elegiaque]

I don't disagree. It's a good idea and it would make a meaningful difference to our safety and effectiveness.

What we don't have is the resources to do that.

[laruetheday]

[ "An odd day" is super vague, but also the fact that Gwen is even alluding to dealing with something not normal is kind of shocking. She always seems so fucking confident and composed. Clarisse is instantly caught in between not wanting to pry for information and wanting to deal with someone else's problems so she doesn't have to think about her own, but she manages to settle on something sort of in the middle. ]

Well... if you ever want to talk about it. I'm around.

[sumptus]

Something to work on, then.

[ Pleased. He can always use a project. ]

Caius, by the way. Research. I won't need a rescuer.

[dissolving]

Wish that were further off.

[ the maker might've turned his face from this world, but divine beatrix hasn't ]

[elegiaque]

( thoughtfully, off his tone, she says: )

If it's something you want to look into, the resources we do have are something I can outline for you when I've put my office in order.

( it's good to have goals. she's already made some notes about what barrow said about siege weaponry. )

[elegiaque]

To be clear, I have a list.

[dissolving]

Who's first up?

[sumptus]

Sounds like a good starting point. I'd appreciate it.

[elegiaque]

Celene.

( this sounds like it should be a joke, but. )

[wearyallalone]

I can manage that. I've a few ideas, but worth seeing the state of them from the air, considering.

[Not all parts of the city have been wholly rebuilt this soon.]

Anything you want me to look at in particular, or just broadly? [Nothing if not thorough, always.]

[dissolving]

What'd she do?

[ specifically. she runs orlais, atrocity's a given. ]

[elegiaque]

( he hears— the start of a word. there's no shortage of things she could be mad about. she'd made her distaste for celene clear long before she'd been anything but the spoiled vauquelin inheritrix,

but other conversations they've had linger. standing in the alienage the day herian had returned. and she starts again, plainer: )

My sisters were in Halamshiral.

She'll take credit now for the reforms, for putting the Marquise into her role, but she didn't put any force behind those reforms, and she wasn't going to raise Briala up on her own— we already saw exactly what the elves of Orlais are to her.

[dissolving]

[ flames — almost slips his own mouth. maybe it'd be funny, the way terrible things sometimes are; maybe it will be, later tonight with hands pushed over his eyes, wondering if it's different to burn to death a martyr, a sister, a scared kid. a scared vint.

here and now it's just char: she didn't have to worry about her older daughters. ]

Your mother wasn't,

[ a guess. there's no gentle way to grip a torch, but light comes the same ]

[elegiaque]

No, she wasn't.

( a breath. a beat. )

The first time Thranduil was here, he knew her. I know what happened to them because she asked him to find out. I think that he hoped he'd find word of them alive, but I know she didn't— expect. She only wanted to know.

It's how I know there weren't any— she didn't have living family, or not any that she had connection to. After they died and she died, the budget allocated to their family's upkeep was. Dispersed. Guilfoyle used to let me mind all of the books with him.